MI MI - JOHN NORMAN COLLINS Co-Ed Murders 1967-69, Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti

[Winward1]

This is good. But, once again, you sidestep the issue of police corruption. Ever read this?:

https://www.amazon.com/Dreams-Ada-R...words=the+dreams+of+ada&qid=1620394105&sr=8-1

There is no doubt that John Norman Collins is a very intelligent individual who was handsome and charming. He used those attributes in his attempts to meet and "pick up" young women.

Collins probably did not commit murder for the purpose of terrorizing a metropolitan area. More likely, something in him snapped at various times, causing him to become extremely violent. There were many times that he dated or picked up women and did NOT get violent with them.

IF... Collins was in fact the killer of several young women and girls in the Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor area, then the pattern and timing would indicate that he was accelerating and getting more bold and reckless in his activity. Most of the abductions/murders took place in evening hours, but that of Karen Sue Beineman occurred in mid day.

These murders were extremely violent events. Victims were killed in a number of different ways. Two were shot in the head with a .22 pistol, several were stabbed, some were beaten into an unrecognizable form, and others were strangled to death, by hand and by cord.

All were left in the open in various secluded places, but in close local proximity. There were some similarities in the victims and something was missing from each (different items). It was believed that most had been killed in a different location from where their bodies were found.

Besides the seven women who were originally (in 1969) thought to be victims by a serial killer, there were other murder victims who were also considered as possibly being connected. Margaret Phillips was a University of Michigan graduate student who was shot in her apartment, but that killer was soon caught and confessed. A young woman was murdered in her home, but the husband was charged with her murder.

In December 1967, a little girl named Eileen Marie Adams from Toledo, Ohio was found near US 23 in Monroe County, Michigan - about 25 miles south of Ypsilanti. Monroe police investigators felt there was a connection with the "Co-ed" murders, but the Washtenaw County investigators (then the lead investigators) did not feel that it was connected. It wasn't until Robert Bowman was caught, tried, and convicted of her murder in 2011 that Eileen's case was closed. At that time, DNA evidence helped to convict him.

The murder of Jane Mixer was always listed among the "Co-ed" murders, but it was always considered a very different one. She was fully clothed, shot to death (with a .22), left in a cemetery, and not sexually molested. Although her murder did not exactly fit the pattern of others, she remained on the books as an unsolved murder until DNA evidence taken matched with registered sex offender, Gary Leiterman. He was subsequently convicted of her murder and died in prison.

So, there were other killers active in Michigan at the time, and some, like Robert Bowman could be classified as "serial killers".

Was Collins a serial killer? Most likely. He was convicted of Karen Sue Beineman's murder and almost certainly killed Roxie Ann Phillips in California. He was connected to least some of the remaining "unsolved" Co-ed cases. Questions certainly remain.

 

[Winward1]

Some might surmise that I enjoy pushing back against what appears to be a mountain of B.S. the likes of which only the US justice system could manufacture when those in are corrupt to the point of putting someone they know is innocent away in order to protect their own worthless asses (at this point, what possible negative thing could be revealed about J. Edgar Hoover that is not already in print?)

That said, I do admire anyone who will make the argument that, lacking any of the kinds of things one finds in the background of killers, somehow, some way, for some unknown reason, Collins just snapped to the point of committing a crime and he did it in a way that no local would do.

 

[Richard]

John Norman Collins loved motorcycles, a detail that later would come up at trial and decades later in prison interviews with State Police detectives.

Below is a link to some very interesting reporting in the Detroit Free Press (2019) regarding Collins and his prison interview with cold case detectives and his 2013 letters to a Canadian cousin.

The article indicates that DNA evidence taken from the body of Alice Kalom matched with Collins, and that he admitted to having met her and having gone motor bike riding with her on the day she died. He went on to say that he gave the keys to his car to Arne Davis so that he could drive her home.

Additionally, the article states that Collins admitted meeting Karen Sue Beineman and taking her to the Wig Shop on his motorcycle, and waiting for her - then driving her to his relative's house. Where, incredibly, his room mate Arne Davis killed her, while he (Collins) was at a cycle shop paying a bill. DNA taken from Karen's body also matched with Collins.

Collins also relays the story that Arne Davis' twin brother was seen driving around in a car with another victim, Joan Schell.

Collins' mother, before her death, told other relatives that on her last visit to him in prison, he confessed to her that he had killed Karen Sue Beineman.

The article also contains an interview with head investigator, Washtenaw County Sheriff Doug Harvey who comments on the case.

LINKS:

'Handsome' EMU student was unlikely serial killer suspect. Letters, interviews reveal dark side.

 

[Winward1]

If the bike was Collins', it would have turned up in the statewide search of vehicle registrations that was done to find someone who fit the description. It didn't in the case of the bike, and it didn't in the case of the car. Thoresen explains this. Collins does not.

Anyone here read the Dreams of Ada? Let it be a lesson to the kinds of crimes that occur in courtrooms in the US.

 

[Winward1]

Richard, all the propaganda in the world doesn't tie a totally unlikely suspect to the crime. Collins does not balance with Beineman and Thoresen also explains the Iowa State victim (also named Collins) as well as Mixer. Now, about that police corruption you keep ignoring...

 

[Winward1]

Fellas, let me quote Mark Felt (when he was known as Deep Throat, a key figure in one of the greatest coverups in history.)

“You’re missing the overall.”

In getting hung up on Collins, you’re unable to see that the Michigan Murderer was clearly a breed apart. Therefore it is impossible that he was some local 21-(or whatever Collins was at the time) year-old.

You’re also missing out on all the great work people did long ago to show that this guy was killing in Southern California in the early sixties. And those who have wisely theorized he was killing in the midwest by the mid sixties and beyond.

You can continue to be held back in this. That’s your deal. I’m no genius but, as far as I know, I’m the first to put forth a Zodiac (who clearly was a serial killer and one who was breed apart) suspect who has received no pushback whatsoever. And you know they would push back against Thoresen if they could.

Need I remind you that this simply does not happen and has not happened in a half century, until I said Thoresen was him and why it’s obvious it was him. And I wasn’t even looking for Zodiac. I was investigating another murder.

Since then, however, I have spent a considerable amount of time and my own money to document this as it should be documented and get it out for anyone to see. Ten bucks on Kindle.

Or you can keep on focusing on Collins and Michigan but, like a bunch of hens who’re sitting around a table whom time has passed by, you’re missing the overall. If it has, God bless you. If we’re lucky it happens to all of us eventually.

Otherwise, consider a former FBI agent, in his memoirs, wrote that he planted the utterly ridiculous story that Valerie Percy was murdered by jewel thieves (even though FBI’s docs show, three months after the murder, they thought Thoresen did it.)

Consider that I have proved Zodiac mailings long argued to genuine are bogus and why (they changed in significant ways exactly at precisely the time Thoresen was killed.)

Consider that a Zodiac-like letter, written to the mother of one of the Morrison-Means victims in Illinois, is sitting around— its envelope untested for DNA. It’s almost like authorities have no interest in who committed that double murder.

Consider all the people who think SFPD is B.S. regarding DNA on Zodiac letters.

Consider the effort and expense that has been made to keep Percy police reports secret, or the firing of an investigator of the Sim’s family murders (if you’re interested, you can read my book and see all the evidence that makes it clear that one guy was crisscrossing the country, killing up to six people at a time, entire families. He was responsible for all of these murders.)

That guy was shot dead on June 10, 1970. His story is so crazy I’ve spent years documenting it. But if you want to keep consuming propaganda, and missing the overall, that’s okay. Not everyone else is, however. I know this for a fact. So be prepared to be passed by.

 

[Winward1]

By the way, if you need more proof that Collins didn't murder Beineman (I don't), you might recall that portions of Beineman's skin had been removed, exposing subcutaneous tissue. Needless to say, thankfully, this was highly usual evidence.

Well, fifteen days before Beineman went missing, a waitress in Milwaukee named Stephanie Casberg, 17, vanished. The day before Beineman was last seen, they found some of Casberg's body parts in Racine County, Wisconsin, near a river. They found the rest a few miles away not long afterward.

Like Beineman, Casberg was a young female.
Like Beineman, Casberg was murdered in July, 1969.
Like Beineman, Casberg was a midwesterner.
Like Beineman, some of Casberg's skin had been removed, exposing subcutaneous tissue.

William Thoresen was a suspect in the dismemberment murder of Judith Mae Anderson in Chicago in 1957. Anderson's remains were found in Lake Michigan. In 1969, Thoresen was renting an apartment in Chicago. Racine County lies between Milwaukee and Chicago. So, if Thoresen wanted to murder someone and was in Milwaukee late at night, he could pick them up there and dump their body on the way back to his Chicago abode, as appears to be what happened to Casberg.

It's clear that Beineman and Casberg were murdered by the same person. Circumstantial evidence points to Thoresen. No less important, on top of all of the other reasons that indicate Beineman was not slain by Collins, you can add the case of Stephanie Casberg.

Consider this in the context of Mrs. Wig Shop initially saying the suspect she saw Beineman with was on a Honda 350, the same motorcycle Thoresen owned. And Thoresen's height, hair color and build were indecipherable from those of Collins.

The Michigan Murderer was on a whole other level when it comes to mayhem. So, it appears, was Throsen, a guy few have even heard of. There's a reason for this. Members of the justice system did all but move mountains to bury his story, including producing a highly edited version of it.

Now consider that Thorsen was killed not long before cops started harassing defense witnesses for Collins. I rest my case.

 

[Richard]

London, Ontario in Canada is only a short distance from Detroit, Michigan. In the late 1960's and early 1970's - around the same time as the Michigan Co-ed Murders - London was experiencing a series of murders of girls and young women. Could some of these murders be related to the Michigan murders?

John Norman Collins was born in Ontario, Canada and had relatives who lived there.

Jacqueline Dunleavy

Jacqueline Dunleavy:
On January 9, 1968 16-year-old Jackie Dunleavy finished her shift at the local variety store in London, Ontario. She walked two blocks to the bus stop not having her own transportation. One witness claimed to see her get inside a white four door sedan.

Her parents knew something was wrong within 30 minutes. Her father was a constable and they began the search. Less than two hours after Dunleavy disappeared three teenagers discovered her body at 8:10 PM near the Children’s Psychiatric Hospital.

She had been beaten in the head with an unspecified blunt instrument. Her scarf was also tied around her neck. She was partially clothed with her genitals exposed. She had pink facial tissue stuffed in her mouth.
----------------------------------

Lynda White

Lynda White:
19-year-old Lynda disappeared after her French exam at Western University in London, Ontario, on November 14, 1968. Her remains weren’t found until June 1972. Lynda’s left arm was missing from her elbow down. According to outside investigators this removal wasn’t due to animal scavenging but was intentional.
-----------------------------------------

Here is an interesting case which occurred while John Norman Collins was in jail, awaiting trial for the murder of Karen Sue Beineman...

Jackie English

Jackie English:
15-year-old Jackie English was abducted on her way home from her waitressing job at the Metropolitan on October 4, 1969. The restaurant was located in the Treasure Island Mall. She went outside to wait for the bus. According to a witness Jackie got into a car instead of getting on the bus. It was the last time Jackie was seen alive.

Five days later, in a rural area about 45 minutes from where Jackie was last seen, her body was discovered in a creek. She was nude. There were signs of sexual assault—two semen samples actually. One internally, the other on her underwear. Her clothes were found strewn along the highway a few days later.

Her cause of death was blunt force trauma most likely from a crowbar or hammer.

Jackie kept a detailed diary they may hold clues. She wrote part of the diary in code. But tucked away in the pages was a picture of an unknown man. Below is that picture.

"Mystery Man"

LINK:

The Forest City Killer - The Murder Squad

 

[Richard]

John Norman Collins

 

[Richard]

Here is another puzzling murder which occurred shortly after John Norman Collins was arrested, and at the time that Andrew Manuel had returned to California.

Roxie Ann Phillips had been murdered on or about 30 June 1969, near Salinas, CA (Manuel's home town) just prior to Collins and Manuel detail cleaning their stolen camping trailer, leaving it at Manuel's Grandfather's home, and returning to Michigan. Roxie was on vacation, staying in Salinas for a short time and intending to travel on to Lompoc, California to join family there.
---------------------------------


"Lompoc Jane Doe"
Murdered August 1969

Located on August 3, 1969 near a quarry on Highway 1, south of Lompoc, Santa Barbara County, California, this young woman remains unidentified. She died from multiple stab wounds and a slit throat.

Vital Statistics
Estimated age: 16 - 25 years old
Approximate Height and Weight: 5'4"; 125 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: Shoulder-length brown hair dyed a reddish blonde; blue eyes. She had pierced ears.
Dentals: Available. She had current dental work and "buck teeth". 19 fillings done within the year or two preceding her death. Based on her dental work, investigators surmised that she may have come from abroad.
Clothing: She was wearing sandals with a gold colored buckle, a blue blouse and what appeared to be homemade white pants decorated with a blue floral print, they were hip hugger bell bottoms. The clothing appeared consistent with that worn by youth during this time period. She wore horseshoe shaped gold earrings.

LINK:
CA - CA - Lompoc, WhtFem 205UFCA, 16-25, overbite, horseshoe earrings, Aug'69

 

[Richard]

...
Now consider that Thorsen was killed not long before cops started harassing defense witnesses for Collins. I rest my case.

Thorsen was killed on 10 June 1970. Jury selection commenced June 2, 1970, and Collins' trial commenced July 20, 1970. What witnesses for the Defense were harassed by police and in what manner?

Certainly, if something like this occurred after the trial proceedings began, it would constitute witness tampering and be grounds for a mistrial. Nothing was mentioned of this in the Defense's appeals.

 

[Winward1]

Collins was clearly a fall guy for the FBI, whose leader at the time has been proven in book after book to be the cheapest of crooks, a guy who was comped at Florida racetracks for the syndicate.

Other than that, the casberg case is further proof Collins killed no one.

 

[Richard]

Murders of Michigan women still unsolved 50 years later — but cops had eye on 1 man
The slayings — all but one of which were in the Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor area — created terror, turmoil and a far-reaching investigation.
Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press
Nov. 10, 2019



(Map of murder scenes published by the Detroit Free Press in July of 1969.)

LINK:

Unsolved Michigan murders of 1960s led police to John Norman Collins

 

[Richard]

"If a person wants something, he alone is the deciding factor of whether or not to take it, regardless of what society thinks is right or wrong ... if a person holds a gun on somebody—it's up to him to decide whether to take the other's life or not. The point is: It's not society's judgment that's important, but the individual's own choice of will and intellect."

— Evaluation of individual will and moral restraints within society, written by Collins while enrolled at Eastern Michigan University.

 

[Winward1]

"Below is a link to some very interesting reporting in the Detroit Free Press (2019) regarding Collins and his prison interview with cold case detectives and his 2013 letters to a Canadian cousin."

You do realize, Richard, that American's regard for the mainstream media these days is at its lowest point in modern history, not the least of which is because most of what they do is hire presstitutes who do little more than "report" CIA and FBI talking points unchallenged.

Funny how these reports of Collins seen driving around town with one of the victims popped up 50 years after the fact, and after my book on Thoresen came out. I don't find this a coincidence.

That said, it’s no longer 1969. Even then a jury barely… barely bought the story that said unlikely suspect, Collins, a college student, killed one—just one of the Michigan victims. And by default and unbelievably it can be presumed, managed to pull off six, seven or more perfect crimes for which he could not be tried.

As it is no longer 1969, we have Webslueths and a hundred other places where people learn that guys with backgrounds like Collins don’t just, at age 21, magically transform into sadistic maniacs because the powers that be spent a few months dragging their names through the mud in the Ann Arbor-Ypsi media, convinced a witness to lie and harassed at least one defense witness (that’s record. So it’s not up for debate. The reason no one knows his name is because it was someone who complained about police harassment and likely consulted a lawyer about it. This, in turn, threatened Ann Arbor leaders with a big, fat, costly lawsuit and all the negative publicity it would have wrought. Though, in the cop’s defense, like the SFPD re: Zodiac, they were almost certainly forced to carry water for the circa 1960s FBI, whose reputation could not be lower at this point and which wanted to keep Thoresen’s slaughtering of dozens, if not hundreds, of people under wraps and no doubt still do. Remember, you're missing the overall.)

No less important, the cat—Thoresen—is out of the bag. Building on a lot of hard work by others, plus my sources, I have proven that he was Zodiac. The last few months this has become an open secret. And that cat is not going back into the bag. No one is pushing back on the proof because it’s irrefutable. The best the people who don’t like it can do is try to ignore him but that is like liars ignoring the truth. They don’t fool anyone. You know what Thoresen said in his letters about hunting humans and collecting souls and how that lines up perfectly with the Michigan Murders, the Robison slayings and many more ala motive. That’s the kind of individual who tortured Beineman.

Collins wasn’t capable of the Beineman slaying if you paid him a million bucks when a million bucks was still a million bucks. And Thoresen was as twisted, violent, and rich to travel/kill full time and was mental as they come (as is documented in news stories and his hometown police record, some of which I have published and is highly incriminating of him as Zodiac.)

As you know Thoresen just so happened to be the same height as Collins. He just so happened to have similar hair color as Collins, just so happened to have a similar build as Collins and just so happened to part his hair the way Collins did. He also just so happened to have the same motorcycle Mrs. Wig Shop initially said the suspect was on before she started lying. You know, before all those other witnesses who aren’t in the original news reports magically appeared as everyone just had to come out of their shops to see the incredible sight of a guy sitting on a motorcycle. He also has long been suspected to have been a serial killer (people he associated with and was related to vanished, or were found dead under mysterious circumstances.)

And he just so happened to be shot dead while the prosecution was gearing up to try Collins. No one buys that all of these things, on top of the fact that Collins (an unlikely suspect argued to have acted in an implausible way) are coincidences. The prosecution had to change the witnesses' story to one of where the suspect was on a Triumph because Collins’ bike does not fit the facts as originally stated and reported.

If Collins’ attorneys had known about Thoresen there would have been no trial. Thoresen also explains the murders of Sheila Collins and Stephanie Casberg (and dozens of others), both of whom there’s no doubt whatsoever were killed by the Michigan Murderer who clearly was a breed apart when it come to taking human life, not a 21-year-old education major who lettered in three sports in high school and was president of the Spanish club.

That said, one can obfuscate, misrepresent and deflect in a bid to prop up the fiction that an unlikely suspect committed this crime in an implausible way. But the cat is out of the bag. It’s been said that my argument is just based on me saying that all of the witnesses who put Collins in the clink were liars. Anyone can see this is not true.

What is true is that no one can have confidence in a conviction where the prosecution argued that an unlikely suspect committed a crime in an implausible (for said suspect) way, investigators harassed at least one witness for providing an alibi, the star witness was exposed as a liar and virtually all of the the evidence used to convict came from a cop’s basement—no confidence whatsoever. It is an effing joke.

The cat is out of the bag and he ain’t going back in. The web of lies that has been stitched together to shroud who was responsible for all of these murders (which includes at least one book…written by Thoresen’s wife for a publisher no one can locate…see FBI front… and that is clearly totally bogus) has a thread that has been pulled and it’s coming apart quick.

Maybe soon we can talk about how prosecutors in Michigan once argued that a guy who was four years old at the time in question was responsible for the murder of Jane Mixer, this before they put another unlikely suspect in jail for that murder.

 

[Winward1]

By the way, Richard, someone told me you’re a profiler, a term which if I’m not mistaken was created out of thin air by the FBI and is, for all intents and purposes, a euphemism for spook. Have you ever uncovered new information, met with sources, obtained documents or published anything not given away for free?

 

[Richard]

There is not doubt that William Thoresen was six bricks short of a full load and an evil individual. But IF he was the killer of all the victims of unsolved murders throughout the midwest (Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois) - and maybe Canada - how do you explain the fact that there were so many more very similar murders after his death in 1970?

Just maybe there were more than one active serial killer (or a lot of individual killers) murdering people in the same time frame. Which is something I have suggested many times.

What you suggest regarding Thoresen as a potential suspect in many of these old, unsolved cases is good work. Recognizing a "style" or pattern which fits other known cases is something which is required to solve some of them - especially after much time has passed, and when connecting cases in different regions and jurisdictions.

My experience in speaking with cold case officers on a number of different cases is that they are very open to discussing them and listening to new or different points of view, or suggestions of possible suspects. There are, however, issues of legal procedure and rules of evidence to be considered when they ponder what to do with the information you give them. Proving that a potential suspect was in the area or at the scene of a crime, connecting them with the victim or the type of crime, etc. all enters into it.

Jurisdictional issues also enter into each case, not only in the legal sense but in the political sense as well. In regard to the Michigan Coed Murders, most of those considered were within Washtenaw County, and so the Sheriff of that county was pretty much in charge of the overall investigation - with other law enforcement organizations also involved. Late in the investigation, Governor Milliken assigned the Michigan State Police to oversee it.

The FBI was not involved in this case until early August 1969, when they were asked to track down Andrew Manuel, who had left Michigan (first to California and then to Arizona where he was captured).

The whole deal with Manuel is questionable in my mind. He was offered a light sentence to plead guilty to two felony theft charges and to testify against Collins in the murder trial. He agreed, but gave prosecutors nothing in the way of evidence. Given a light fine and parole, he was out by Christmas 1969 and soon blew town again. He was picked up and served about 3 months in the county jail. He later served two separate terms in Federal Prisons for committing federal crimes of some sort.

 

[Winward1]

Depends how similar you’re talking about. And it depends how much you can take as gospel about what was said about, for instance, the Michigan Murders. For sure there were many murders afterwards if not home invasion stabbings of multiple family members.

It seems Thoresen didn’t rape his victims, though he had a sex assault charge in his past. Him not sexually assaulting but leaving victims with skits pulled up, top’s straps cut off, panties pulled down...implying a sexual motive where there was none.

Of course, Schell may have had multiple suspects involved, only some who may have sexually assaulted her and in other cases it may have falsely been reported that a sex assault occurred in order to confirm a confession. And Thoresen did travel with sketchy characters at times.

There were more teenagers in the country after Thoresen was killed so one would expect a larger number of killings based on that alone. 1959 was the highest number of births. Those kids were only 11 in ‘70. Then you had a booming divorce rate and many more runaways. It was a volatile combination.

My primary concerns are that none one of these many cases that look to have been him have been solved in a half century, DNA sitting untested in the Morrison Means case (not that I trust the powers that be in these cases to tell the truth in these matters, i.e. Zodiac DNA testing), reasons to doubt Colllins was a killer and to have expected a rigged prosecution of him amd others in order to keep anyone from bringing up Thoresen, and that includes Mixer. These two guys are not the only ones i believe went to prison for murders Thoresen committed.

 

[Winward1]

"If a person wants something, he alone is the deciding factor of whether or not to take it, regardless of what society thinks is right or wrong ... if a person holds a gun on somebody—it's up to him to decide whether to take the other's life or not. The point is: It's not society's judgment that's important, but the individual's own choice of will and intellect."

— Evaluation of individual will and moral restraints within society, written by Collins while enrolled at Eastern Michigan University.

This to me is an example of the kind of stretch one must do to cast suspicion on Collins in this case—a paper he wrote in school which, by the way, sounds a lot like conservative or libertarian ideology, pretty mainstream stuff in this day and age rather than some sort of justification for murder. It seems the gist of it is not murdering but casting responsibility on the individual for his or her actions.

 

[Winward1]

"The FBI was not involved in this case until early August 1969, when they were asked to track down Andrew Manuel, who had left Michigan (first to California and then to Arizona where he was captured). "

I don't know how many cases you've looked at from the sixties or fifties in the US but a large number I have seen it seems almost without exception, news reports and crime scene photos document, evidence and information was forwarded to the FBI. I know this was true of the Morrison Means case, the Percy case, if I recall correctly the Bricca and Sims cases etc. etc. That qualifies as FBI involvement.