My girlfriend during the years covering the Washtenaw County coed killings (1967-1969) was Kristi Kurtz. When we met up, she had just dropped out of Eastern Michigan University and managed a small boutique called Stangers near Ned's Bookstore on West Cross Street in Ypsilanti.
I worked part time evenings at the university and took classes during the day. We lived together one block up the street from the boarding house where John Norman Collins lived on 619 Emmet St. and walked past that house daily unsuspecting the eventual notoriety of the place.
Kristi was a vibrant, outspoken, and fiercely independent young woman who found solace in her love of animals. They were the center of her life. Tragedy struck Kristi's young life when her father and mother were killed in a private plane crash. Her father owned a steel company in Detroit and had provided well for his orphaned family. Losing both parents so early in life had a lasting impact on her, and she became more independent because of it.
Kristi and her older sister and brother grew up in Grosse Pointe and were raised by her aunt who kept tight control of the children's trust fund which was sizable. But after Kristi dropped out of college, the money dried up. Kristi wasn't twenty-one and had limited access to her money, so she worked just enough to get by, against the day when she would inherit the money outright.
Kristi liked animals better than people, and she wanted to raise and board horses on a small farm of her own. As soon as she was able, she bought the 113 acre Firesign Farm on Trotters Lane in Webster Township north of Ypsilanti. Kristi set out to live her dream, but I decided that finishing my education was more important than being her horse groom. We parted ways but remained friends. It was a defining moment for both of us.
Twenty years later, I'm living in California, and I get a phone call from a mutual Michigan friend of ours that I hadn't heard from in over ten years. "I've got some tragic news for you," he says. "Kristi's body was found shot to death and discovered buried under some bales of hay in her barn. She's been missing for a month."
It took me a few seconds to wrap my head around what I had just been told, then I heard what few details were known at that time. Two days after Thanksgiving on Saturday, November 24th, 1990, Kristi was last seen by a friend. When Kristi disappeared and hadn't fed her nine horses or other animals for a day or two, her neighbors got worried and contacted Kristi's sister who lived in Colorado. She called the Michigan State Police and filed a missing persons report on Monday, November 26th.
Then on Wednesday, December 26th at 10:15 AM, the day after Christmas, the Good Samaritan neighbor who had been caring for Kristi's horses and dogs, Rick Godfrey, removed another bale of hay to feed the horses, then he recognized her leather boots sticking out. Godfrey had given them to her as a Christmas gift two years before. He moved another bale and saw her frozen, fully clothed body. She had been missing for thirty-two days.
Twice the police had searched the barn with canines but felt the pungent smells confused the dogs. The barn cats had managed to find her body though. Dental records were required for a positive identification.
Check the link for archival news footage about the capture of Kristi Kurtz's murderer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7fnfrk6ZpA
Since September of 2011, my research partner and I have been investigating the John
Norman Collins murders in the Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor area between July
of 1967 through July of 1969. These seven murders of young women became
know as the Co-Ed Killings and have since become a local legend - partly
because five of the murders are as yet unsolved - partly because of
shoddy police work. Despite early media attention nationally, the trial
was overshadowed by the Tate/Bianca murders and the Charles Manson
family, which occurred at the same time as the Collins trial.
My research into this matter includes studies of many of the most
infamous serial killers, sex criminals, sociopaths, and pathological
narcissists in twentieth-century America - almost exclusively angry
white males. If ever there was a Rogue's Gallery in Hell, this
collection of psychopaths would make their blood run cold.
What makes these people different from the rest of us? They lack something called a
conscience. These people are lost in a deep and dark existential void
where their actions don't have consequences for them - until they are
caught, of course. Then they justify their crimes. These people live in a
mirrored reality where they are in control - where they are God.
Dr. Martha Stout, PhD, in her book, the sociopath next door (sic),
convincingly purports that one in twenty-five people are sociopathic.
That is four percent of the population. Many of these people find their
niche in society, but too many others carve their way into our
consciousness. At their best, they manipulate and use people heartlessly
- at their worst, they unleash havoc and horror on an unprotected and
terrified public.
What is even more scary is that most of these characters have charm and
cunning to mask their heinous acts and desires. Reminds me of Lady
Macbeth's advice to her husband, "Appear the innocent flower, but be the
serpent underneath." Even in Shakespeare's time, this "deceptive"
feature of psychopaths was known. More the pity, there is no known cure
for their madness. But when push comes to shove - Beware! - they will
stop at nothing to manipulate reality to suit themselves and satisfy
their ravenous rage against a society that hasn't learned to appreciate
or acknowledge them.
The study of sociopathy is in its early stages, and there are many
unanswered questions about it. How do we identify sociopaths? Once we
identify them, what do we do about them? How can society protect itself?
Lawyers avoid using the term in court because it has not been precisely
defined. The term "serial killer" was not used in court until the
1980's, when an FBI man used it in court to describe the dramatic
increase of this crime after World War Two. In Colin Wilson's incisive
work, The History of Murder, he states that the FBI estimates serial killers kill 300 to 500 people yearly in America.
People just don't become killers. What makes them that way? And if there
are natural born killers among us, surely that tendency displays itself
early in their lives. Why isn't sociopathy addressed in public schools?
We give lip service against bullies, but what is done with these kids
who prey on other students - driving an increasing number to suicide?
More often than not, we simply transfer them to another school and seal
their records? Presently, there is no known treatment to cure these
demons among us, but ignoring them is not an option.
