Terror In Ypsilanti Pilot in the Works

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I received some good news in June that a Canadian media company I signed with in 2019 recently hired two women writers to develop a screenplay for Terror In Ypsilanti. They are working on a pilot as part of a package to promote a possible six-part miniseries to producers. This recent development is by no means a done deal, but it did raise my spirits when the doldrums of this pandemic were beginning to wear on me, so I thought I would share the news.

Longtime residents of Ypsilanti, Michigan may remember when a film crew from New York City rolled into town early in 1977 with Hollywood producer, director, and writer William Martin to film a movie about the Washtenaw County murders of 1967-1969.

Eastern Michigan University (EMU) freshman Karen Sue Beineman went missing on July 23, 1969 when she was last seen riding on the back of a motorcycle with a young, white male wearing a green and yellow striped soccer jersey and shorts. EMU senior John Norman Collins was arrested a week later. It was generally believed by authorities that Collins was the same person who had murdered six other young women in the area. It would be a year before the Beineman case went to trial in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

Actor Robert Purvey on motorcycle and William Martin directing local actor Kathy Pierce.

William Martin's movie about the murders was named after the children's bedtime prayer Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. The production ran into trouble from the start. The first strike against it was Martin's script; he didn't have one. He filmed short segments without the cast on set or any predetermined locations. Martin was filming the establishing, exterior shots before the Hollywood studio work, he said.

The second strike was that William Martin was an alias for Teamster organizer Martin Bacow, who reincarnated himself in Hollywood when he was the Teamster's man in Tinsel Town. His only other film credit was something called Jacktown about the 1952 Jackson Prison riot, which was so bad it was never released.

The third strike against the project was when Martin/Bacow was subpoenaed to testify in Detroit Federal Court as a material witness regarding Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance. That's the last time the film crew saw or heard from William Martin. They packed up their rented equipment and returned to New York. This movie was never produced, nor does a single bit of film footage exist. The enterprise amounted to a scam to defraud investors. More on that story is in the link at the end of this post. 

My initial glee upon hearing about a possible Terror In Ypsilanti movie project is tempered by the seriousness of the subject matter. One of the standard provisions in my contract was signing away creative control. But the CEO of the media company asked if I'd be interested being a script consultant. Well, of course I would.

Original mugshot--August 2, 1969.

One concern I have about the project is how John Norman Collins will be portrayed. He drives the plot, but I feel he should remain a murky, anonymous figure throughout most of the series until he is unmasked towards the end. Rather than tell the story through his eyes, the screenplay writers are motivated to tell this story through the point of view of the victims, with a feminine sensibility rare in the true crime genre. 

The Ann Arbor and Detroit media sensationalized this tragedy and intimated that the victims were somehow responsibile for their own demise. Perhaps this attitude relected the media's need to make a morality tale out of this tragedy, but collateral harm was done to their friends and families. Times have changed in fifty years, so it is my belief that these portrayals will be more respectful.

Another concern I have is how Ypsilanti will be portrayed. The city was deeply affected by this tragedy and that story needs to be told with sensitivity too. I hope some of the exteriors for the movie will be filmed in Ypsilanti to give the project an authentic look and feel.

Undoubtedly, some people will find the project repugnant and won't be happy whatever the outcome of the film. I already know one person in Marquette Branch Prison who won't be pleased. I expect this project to take several years before it is ready for prime time, but I'm optimistic it will come to pass, unlike the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep fiasco. Hope I live long enough to see it.

Whatever happened to Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep?

New John Norman Collins Documentary on Investigative Discovery in December

The John Norman Collins movie begun in 1976, Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, was never completed despite rumors to the contrary. As far as anybody knows, no film footage from the original shoot exists. Of course, we are still looking for whatever we can find.

 

Sometime this December, The Investigative Discovery channel will debut a true-crime show called "A Crime To Remember." The network will run an episode called "A New Kind of Monster" on John Norman Collins and the Washtenaw County murders that occurred in Michigan in the late 1960s.

 

In addition to interviews with people familiar with these cases, this episode will include re-enactments of these crimes interspersed throughout the narrative. This show is a fresh look at a case that largely fell through the cracks of time.

When I receive the details when it will air, I'll pass the information on. Until then, here are the names of the full cast and crew. 

 

 

Executive Producer - Christine Connor

Series Associate Producer - Rebecca Morton

Director - Jeremiah Crowell

Assistant Director (Second Unit) - Paul Jarrett

Writer - Bruce Bennett

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Nick Adamson - John Norman Collins

Ardis Barrow - Joan Schell

Patricia Bartlett - Joan Goshe

Dan Berkey - funeral director

Devin Doyle - Dale Schultz

Erica Hernandez - Mary Fleszar

Johnny Kinnaird - State Police Detective

John Larkin - Sheriff Douglas Harvey

Scott Lehman - Corporal David Leik

Thomas J. Lombardo - Officer Matthewson

Kerri Sohn - Karen Sue Beineman 

The Lost John Norman Collins Movie - Part One

In early 1977, a film crew of thirty-five people from Hollywood descended upon the communities of Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, Michigan, to make a film about John Norman Collins, the all-American boy and Eastern Michigan University student, who allegedly murdered seven young women in the area.

Producer/director/writer, William Martin, took five years to write the screenplay and insisted that it was not at all connected with The Michigan Murders, which was released a year earlier in 1976. Martin's movie was to be more of a mood piece about the community in crisis rather than "factual" details. The movie was entitled, Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep.

"It's not a police story," Martin told reporters. "The whole county was in terror for two years. I'm only doing it from the standpoint of what was running through the minds of the girls, what was happening in the community, and what was happening with the killer at large."

What was happening with the killer is still a story begging to be told. John Norman Collins has steadfastly maintained he is innocent.

The budget for this film ranged from early estimates of 1 million dollars to a soaring 2.5 million in total production costs. The film was slated by Paramount Pictures for its Ypsilanti premiere around Christmas time in 1978, but the film was never completed. Somewhere in a vault or storage locker lies footage from a film never before seen by the public.

Martin planned to change the names of the victims as Edward Keyes and others have done, but Terror In Ypsilanti uses the real names of the people.

Malibu surf legend, Robert Purvey, was cast as John Norman Collins; Rory Calhoun portrayed Washtenaw County Sheriff, Douglas Harvey; Katherine Grayson, of 1940's MGM musical fame, was to play Collin's aunt, Sandra Leik; Peter Hurkos agreed to play himself with little or no persuasion; and local Detroit WXYZ anchorman, Bill Bonds, reprised his role as a field reporter which he had previously played in a couple of Planet of the Apes movies and Five Easy Pieces.

Reasons why the film was never completed range from John Collins lawyers trying to get a court injunction to stop production to personal threats against the producer. Recently, my researcher, Ryan Place, has been in contact with Robert Purvey who sheds new light on why this movie was never made. More on that in my next post.

Lost Collins Movie - Part Two