Episode 2: The Michigan Murders

The murders started on a hot July afternoon in southeast Michigan in 1967. It was a time of freedom and a place of freedom near the campus of Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Nineteen-year-old Mary Teresa Fleszar, a student at EMU, decided to take a walk.

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Above Left: The victims of John Norman Collins and the areas their bodies were located.Center: John Collins after his arrest.Right: John Collins before arrest.

Above Left: The victims of John Norman Collins and the areas their bodies were located.

Center: John Collins after his arrest.

Right: John Collins before arrest.


The murders started on a hot July afternoon in southeast Michigan in 1967. It was a time of freedom and a place of freedom near the campus of Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Nineteen-year-old Mary Teresa Fleszar, a student at EMU, decided to take a walk. It was a warm summer evening in July.

Mary bid farewell to her roommate and strolled off down the street.

Twenty-eight days later, Mary’s heavily decomposed and mutilated body would be discovered near an abandoned farmhouse in Superior Township just north of Ypsilanti.

Mary would mark the beginning of a two-year killing spree that would leave more than six young women savagely murdered, their families’ lives forever altered, and a town with a black shadow that would not lift for many years if it ever did at all.


Resources:

Books

Keys, Edward. The Michigan Murders: The True Story of the Ypsilanti Ripper’s Reign of Terror. 2016. Open Road Media.

Fournier, Gregory. Terror in Ypsilanti. 2016. Wheatmark. Tucson, AZ.

Online

Detroit Free Press: The Evidence Locker - The Michigan Murders: Article

Fox 2 Detroit: Michigan Murders

Ann Arbor District Library: Summary of Michigan Murders: Article

Ann Arbor District Library: Ann Arbor News Archives: Articles

Ann Arbor District Library: Ann Arbor News Archives: Slain Girls Last Hour: Article

Victim: Mary Fleszar Memorial Page: Website

San Francisco Chronicle: Michigan Suspect Linked Directly yo Salinas Case :Article

John Norman Collins - Department of Psychology Radford University: Information researched and summarized by Jami Lyle, Justin Hanky, & Rex Harrison: PDF

Fornology: Criminal Profile of John Norman Collins: Blog

99.1 WFMK: Haunting on Geddes Road: Article



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Episode 4: The Unsolved Murder of Elaine Nix

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Episode 3: The Michigan Murders Part 2