Edgar Award Finalist: The terrifying true story of savage murders, a terrorized midwestern town, and the serial killer who could have lived next door
In 1967, during the time of peace, free love, and hitchhiking, nineteen-year-old Mary Terese Fleszar was last seen alive walking home to her apartment in Ypsilanti, Michigan. One month later, her naked body—stabbed over thirty times and missing both feet and a forearm—was discovered, partially buried, on an abandoned farm. A year later, the body of twenty-year-old Joan Schell was found, similarly violated. Southeastern Michigan was terrorized by something it had never experienced before: a serial killer. Over the next two years, five more bodies were uncovered around Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Michigan. All the victims were tortured and mutilated. All were female students.
After multiple failed investigations, a chance sighting finally led to a suspect. On the surface, John Norman Collins was an all-American boy—a …
Edgar Award Finalist: The terrifying true story of savage murders, a terrorized midwestern town, and the serial killer who could have lived next door
In 1967, during the time of peace, free love, and hitchhiking, nineteen-year-old Mary Terese Fleszar was last seen alive walking home to her apartment in Ypsilanti, Michigan. One month later, her naked body—stabbed over thirty times and missing both feet and a forearm—was discovered, partially buried, on an abandoned farm. A year later, the body of twenty-year-old Joan Schell was found, similarly violated. Southeastern Michigan was terrorized by something it had never experienced before: a serial killer. Over the next two years, five more bodies were uncovered around Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Michigan. All the victims were tortured and mutilated. All were female students.
After multiple failed investigations, a chance sighting finally led to a suspect. On the surface, John Norman Collins was an all-American boy—a fraternity member studying elementary education at Eastern Michigan University. But Collins wasn’t all that he seemed. His female friends described him as aggressive and short tempered. And in August 1970, Collins, the “Ypsilanti Ripper,” was arrested, found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole.
Written by the coauthor of The French Connection, The Michigan Murders delivers a harrowing depiction of the savage murders that tormented a small midwestern town.
Exploitation of the worst – and most engrossing – kind
2 stars
A run-of-the-mill “True Crime” book on more than 400 pages.
In his foreword, Keyes insists that “what follows is true,” but that is only partly correct, just as the described crimes are certainly not “the most barbaric sex crimes of the century,” as the back cover boasts. Indeed, what we have here is exploitation of the worst – and most engrossing – kind.
Written as a novel, the narrator knows every intimate detail of his characters and every action they perform: the written equivalent of a docu-soap. In this way, it is a fairly exciting read, but it leaves a very bad aftertaste.
