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

[Richard]

Gary Leiterman was convicted in 2005 for the 1969 murder of Jane Mixer.

Although there might be some controversy regarding Gary Leiterman's conviction for the murder of Jane Mixer, her case was always associated with the Michigan "Co-Ed Murders".

Leiterman was only convicted of one murder - that of Jane Mixer, based on DNA evidence. IF he killed Jane, could he have killed others too? If he didn't kill Jane, who did?

LINK:

MI - MI - GARY LEITERMAN, killed Jane Mixer, 1969, suspect in other murders

Man accused in slaying of U-M law student recently convicted for child 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬 But jurors won't hear how Leiterman allegedly bragged of having a vial of a substance that could render a woman unconscious. And they won't hear of a recent conviction for producing child sexually abusive...

www.websleuths.com

Gary Leiterman, 62, of Gobles, Michigan, arraigned Nov. 24, 2004 in the 1969 slaying of Jane Louise Mixer, 23, of Muskegon. She was a University of Michigan law student who was abducted and murdered in March 1969.

The murder of Jane Mixer was originally linked by investigators to what they believed was a series called "The Co-ed Murders". Some believed that it was separate from the others due to a number of differences in MO.

DNA was obtained from Jane's clothing which was still being stored in evidence and compared to a data base of known offenders, which led to a match with the DNA of Gary Leiterman. He was charged, tried and convicted of her murder and sentenced to life in prison. He has since died.

Leiterman has not been connected with any of the other Co-ed murders.

LINK:

Never-before-published letters, interviews offer clues in infamous Michigan murders

Eight women and girls were slain in the late 1960s. New details shed more light on the crimes and John Norman Collins, who never fit anyone's image of a killer.

www.freep.com

 

[Richard]

John Norman Collins​

Some know John Norman Collins, now 74 and serving a life sentence at Ionia Correctional Facility, as "the Ypsilanti Ripper," or "the Co-Ed Killer."

Collins grew up in Michigan. The seven women he killed between 1967 and 1969, most in and around Ypsilanti, became known as "the Michigan Murders."

Some people call him Michigan's Ted Bundy, but Carpenter points out that Collins killed his victims before Bundy killed any of his.

"It's kind of ironic, but he was a handsome, clean-cut, college student," she said. "He was in a fraternity at Eastern Michigan (University), he was majoring in elementary education.

"Those who didn't know Collins well then described him as nice, polite and respectful," Carpenter said.

The women and girls he killed ranged in age from 13 to 21.

"Most of them were last seen alone at night, walking down the street," Carpenter said, and most of their bodies were found mutilated and naked...

"He very much reveled in his crimes," she said, and was known for returning to several places where he had left the bodies of the women he murdered.

Collins was eventually arrested and convicted of murdering Karen Sue Beineman, 18 and an Eastern Michigan University student.

In a letter to a Detroit Free Press reporter who'd requested an interview in 2019, Collins denied his guilt, writing, "I felt somewhat obliged to at least give you a brief response since you have been kind of a 'PAIN IN THE ' with your persistance. lol"

In recent years, Collins had "revealed disturbing new information that confirmed some of law enforcement's decades-old suspicions," according to Michigan State Police detectives, the Free Press reported...

LINK:

'The worst of the worst.' A look at five Michigan serial killers and their crimes

From Aileen Wuornos and John Norman Collins to East Lansing's Don Miller and Lansing's Matthew Macon, a look at 5 of Michigan's serial killers.

www.lansingstatejournal.com

 

[Richard]

Here is a video of "Kelly and Company" from 1989 which covered the 1967 - 69 Michigan Co-Ed Murders. It includes interviews with John Norman Collins.

LINK:

 

[Midge Montana]

Thanks @Richard for posting that video. I’ve either never seen it or had forgotten about it.
I started following JNC and his cases after I read the Keyes book in elementary school back in the late 1970s. Yes I was a weird child.
Watching this, I was surprised to feel like so many in the audience didn’t firmly believe he murdered those women.

 

[Richard]

Thanks @Richard for posting that video. I’ve either never seen it or had forgotten about it.
I started following JNC and his cases after I read the Keyes book in elementary school back in the late 1970s. Yes I was a weird child.
Watching this, I was surprised to feel like so many in the audience didn’t firmly believe he murdered those women.

I had posted a link to "Kelly and Company" a few years ago, but the link went defunct, so I found this one.

The Keyes book is a good one, and he sticks pretty close to the facts in the case as it progressed and was being investigated/reported. Reading it today is a bit difficult because he changed all the names in his account. I believe it was published about 1976. Some time back, I posted a translation key with his names paired with their actual names.

Collins was only convicted of one murder - that of Karen Sue Beineman. However, DNA tests on stored evidence in recent years linked him forensically to not only her murder, but also to the murder of Alice Kalom. Pretty solid evidence also linked him strongly to the California murder of Roxie Ann Phillips.

 

[Richard]

Here is a translation key to some of the names used in The Michigan Murders by Edward Keyes for anyone who would like to understand who he is talking about.

Name in the book: ....... Real name:

James Armstrong ....... John Norman Collins

Marilyn Pindar ....... Mary Fleszar

Jill Hersh ....... Joan Schell

Jeanne Holder ....... Jane Mixer

Mary Grace Clemson ....... Maralynn Skelton

Dale Harum ....... Dawn Basom

Audrey Sakol ....... Alison Kalom

Carol Ann Gebhardt ....... Karen Sue Beineman

Ginger Lee Neary ....... Roxie Ann Phillips

Elizabeth Peters ....... Margaret Phillips

Edgar Hatton, Jr. ....... Ernest R. Bishop, Jr.

Tony Monte ....... Andrew Julian Manuel

Donald Baker ....... Arnold (Arnie) Davis


Reference:

Keyes, Edward (1976). The Michigan Murders. Reader's Digest Press. ISBN 978-0-472-03446-8.

 

[Richard]

John Norman "Waterhead" Collins, MDOC Number: 126833. Photo dated 2021.

John Norman Collins currently resides at the G. Robert Cotton Facility, located in Jackson, Michigan.

Here is a description of the various programs available to him (from the prison website):

G. Robert Cotton Facility offers several academic programs that include Adult Basic Education, General Education Development preparation, Special Education, English as a Second Language (ESL), Jackson College, Employment Readiness, and Food Technology training program. The facility has the Michigan Braille Transcribing Fund (MBTF), one of two prisons with the braille program in the State. The facility also has Michigan State Industries Print Shop and Mattress Factory. JCF is a Prisoner Re-entry facility for the statewide medical and the Wayne County population. The facility offers evidence-based cognitive programs such as Thinking for a Change (T4C), Chance for Life (CFL), Violence Prevention Program (VPP), Michigan Domestic Violence Program (MiDVP), Phase II Substance Abuse, Advanced Substance Abuse Treatment (ASAT), and Alcoholics Anonymous. JCF also has the Leader Dog for the Blind Program.

Prisoners are provided on-site medical, dental and mental health services. Serious medical problems are treated at the department’s Duane Waters Health Center (DWH).

Not mentioned are such luxuries as color TV, and green Jello desert on Wednesdays.

Unfortunately, his victims were never afforded the same considerations and benefits.

LINK:

Offender Tracking Information System (OTIS) - Offender Profile

https://www.michigan.gov/corrections/Prisons/G-Robert-Cotton-Correctional-Facility

 

[Richard]

John Norman Collins, MDOC Number: 126833
Date of Birth: 06/17/1947

LINK:

Offender Tracking Information System (OTIS) - Offender Profile

 

[Richard]

John Norman Collins was tried and convicted of only one murder, that of Karen Sue Beineman, age 18. He was sentenced to life in prison for that particularly cruel and brutal murder.

It is very likely that he killed others as well, but managed to get rid of incriminating evidence just before his arrest. One piece of evidence that could have connected him to two of the other victims in a series known as The Co-Ed Murders was a .22 revolver that he owned.

Two days before his arrest, his buddy Andrew Manuel left Michigan for California by bus, taking that pistol with him. He did not have it when arrested by the FBI on 6 August 1969 in Arizona. Manuel claimed to have thrown it away some where along the route.

Two of the Co-Ed victims had been shot to death with a Hi Standard. 22 revolver. If Collins' revolver had been taken into evidence, it could have been compared to the bullets found in the murdered women.

Other evidence disposed of by Collins included women's clothing, shoes, jewelry, a purse, and a blanket.

Collins also cleaned out his car, a stolen camping trailer, and his Aunt's basement (murder scene).
A hunting knife from one of his stolen motorcycles was wiped clean and hidden in his roommate's dresser.

 

[Richard]

John Norman Collins, MDOC Number: 126833
Date of Birth: 06/17/1947

LINK:

Offender Tracking Information System (OTIS) - Offender Profile

Collins is still serving a life sentence for the July 1969 first degree murder of Karen Sue Beineman.

 

[Richard]

Collins is in his 56th year in prison, serving a life term for murder.

 

[Bored_To_Death]

Katherine Ramsland said he would walk girls on his campus to safety, like Ted Bundy did for Ann Rule. Creepy.

 

[Richard]

Katherine Ramsland said he would walk girls on his campus to safety, like Ted Bundy did for Ann Rule. Creepy.

There were many similar safety recommendations put out by police and campus officials at the time of the "Co-Ed Killings" which terrorized the community in 1968-1969.

There was a lot of news coverage and speculation around that time regarding a then unidentified killer (or killers) of young women and girls.

John Norman Collins was arrested at the end of July 1969. He was only charged with one murder - that of 18 year old Karen Sue Beineman. After a long trial, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

He has more recently been linked by DNA to both Karen's murder and the murder of Alison Kalom. He was indicted by the State of California for the murder of Roxie Ann Phillips, but never extradited from Michigan to stand trial.

 

[Richard]

This June 30th marks the 56 year anniversary of the murder of Roxie Ann Phillips.

She was in Salinas, California for a short visit before planning to continue on to Lompoc, California to visit family.

It is very likely that Roxie was murdered by John Norman Collins. He was with her the day before she went missing and was seen and described by another woman who Roxie was staying with.

Collins was indicted by the State of California for her murder, but was not extradited from Michigan due to on going court proceedings and appeals for the murder of Karen Sue Beineman.

When he was later made available by Michigan for extradition, California declined to accept and charge him.

 

[Richard]

Collins is 78 years old now and has been in prison for 56 years in Michigan. He was jailed upon his late July 1969 arrest, and sentenced to life in prison in 1970.

The record in Michigan for the longest serving prison inmate is 64 years, 70 days - held by Clarence Marshall.