Kirkus Indie Review of Zug Island: A Detroit Riot Novel

 

ZUG ISLAND    

A Detroit Riot Novel

 

By Gregory A. Fournier

Pub Date: June 15th, 2011
ISBN: 978-1604945850
Publisher: Wheatmark

In Fournier’s thoughtful debut novel, a young man comes of age in the tense atmosphere of a city teetering on the edge of chaos.
Jake Malone, a white college kid in suburban Detroit in 1967, gets kicked out of school and decides to earn a little money to get a car of his own. He ends up at Zug Island, a steelworking plant that’s a world away from his suburban home. When he first sees the place, it reminds Jake of Dante’s Inferno, but he doesn’t know yet how literal that perception will become. After a tense fight at the plant, he’s befriended by Theo Semple, an African-American man who came to Detroit for better wages but left a family and a tragic history back in the South. In their spare time, Jake and Theo hit the town seeking adventures. As the story unfolds, what they find is eye-opening for Jake—from prostitution and police brutality on the streets of Detroit to the casual racism found in the all-white suburbs. The racial tension builds, until one day it explodes in riots that turn Detroit into an inferno. Told from Jake’s perspective, the short novel—part journey through hell, part social document, part adventure story—depicts his struggles with race and class pressure. Fournier reveals what life was like not only on Zug Island, but also on the streets of Detroit, in its white suburbs and in white and black churches. Readers may wish the author had spent more time in some of the scenes, particularly the riots, which are described from a distance. The Vietnam War is mentioned, but its impact is left unexplored. Also, at times, Fournier steps back from the story to fill in general history that is illuminating, even though it breaks the narrative flow. On the whole, however, the novel is tightly written with a dramatic plot, well-rounded characters and clear insights into social history.
An engaging, dynamic story that grapples intelligently with themes of race, class and morality.

Available at Amazon.com and in the Kindle e-book format.   

http://www.amazon.com/Zug-Island-Detroit-Riot-Novel/dp/1604945850 

Quick Party Caricatures by Walt Griggs

While doing research for my next book, In the Shadow of the Water Tower, in Ypsilanti, Michigan, I ran into Walt Griggs, a caricature artist preparing to set up for a party he was working at The Corner Brewery.

I struck up a conversation with him about my reason for being in town and he was quite intrigued. He had never heard of John Norman Collins or the co-ed killings.

"Would you like me to draw you? I need to warm up." The party hadn't started quite yet.

"Sure," I said. "Do you want me to pose or anything?"

"No. Just sit there and tell me more about your book."

Five minutes later, he handed me the drawing you see above. I was really pleased with it, though I don't think I'm that gleeful in real life. Of course, that's why it's called a caricature.

What a great idea! Hiring someone to caricature quests at a party. The artist gets a commission for being there, and he earns tips and future referrals for other jobs at the same time.

As people began to arrive at the private party, I traded him a copy of Zug Island and thanked him. We both made a good deal I think.

Check out Walt's website at: www.artistrising.com/galleries/waltgriggs

Fraud Alert! Beware of Wireless Chip in Your Credit Card

Cyber criminals have a powerful ally - the credit card companies themselves. Credit card fraud has never been easier.

Because of a wireless chip in millions of credit cards, your "secure" number can be lifted from your purse, pocket, or wallet without even touching you. All a criminal needs is a card reader and an i-Pad.

You don't believe me? Check out the link below.

http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/lLAFhTjsQHw%26sns=em

Rendezvous with Death - Part Three

Since the 1980s, law enforcement experienced a gradual decline in the number of violent crimes in the United States. In 2003, the U.S. House of Representatives authorized one billion dollars to use DNA to reduce the huge backlog of cases that had gone cold. Two retired Michigan State Police Detectives volunteered to look into the Michigan Coed murders of the late 1960s.
 
In 2004, the Michigan State Police ran DNA samples from at least two of the murdered Michigan coeds through the FBIs Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). The third young woman John Norman Collins allegedly killed in the series of seven sex slayings attributed to him was twenty-three year old, Jane Mixer, a graduate law student at The University of Michigan.

Even though a few investigators most familiar with these cases felt from the start that Jane's murder was characteristically different from the two previous murders, she was included in the unsolved coed murder cache. Thirty-five years later, a DNA analysis of her pantyhose revealed copious amounts of perspiration on them that wasn't from Jane. DNA was extracted from the sweat cells and run through the FBI's CODIS database.

The first run through the system produced a "cold" hit on a retired male nurse who had been convicted on a prior fraud charge for writing bogus prescriptions. He was entered into the CODIS system at that time. Gary Earl Leiterman, dubbed by the local press as "The Elmer Fudd Killer," was found guilty of the murder of Jane Mixer. John Norman Collins was cleared.

Since DNA scientific evidence is considered so strong in court, many cold cases have been solved in the thirty years since it has been introduced as an effective crime fighting tool. Many guilty parties have been brought to justice, while some of the innocent have been exonerated of their crimes after years of unjust imprisonment.

It should be noted that John Norman Collins has refused DNA testing, which could prove him innocent of the murders he has steadfastly claimed he is innocent of committing for the last forty-five years. Even John's supporters must find that curious. Seems to me if he had a "Get Out of Jail" card, he would have gotten his ticket punched years ago.

(To be continued...)

http://www.murderpedia.org/male.L/l/leiterman-gary-photos.htm

Rendezvous with Death - Part Two

My goal in recounting the horrible deaths of seven young women in Washtenaw County, Michigan, in the late 1960s, is not to evoke the pain and sorrow of friends and family, which is bound to happen, but to present an up-to-date account of what occurred so long ago, which has been obscured by time, hasty reporting, and spotty police work.

I have researched the misnamed "coed murders" and interviewed people who knew the victims and discovered details not generally known to the public. I am attempting to bring together living history accounts, over 700 pages of news clippings from the era, the Michigan State Police report the prosecutor of this case worked from, perceptions of people who knew John Collins - the alleged serial killer, and several post trial developments which will give a fuller picture of this story than ever told before.

The national obscurity of this case is largely due to being overshadowed by the Charles Manson case in Los Angeles, California. John Norman Collins was arrested the night of July 31, 1969. On August 10th, just over a week later, the bodies of pregnant Sharon Tate, director Roman Polanski's starlet wife, and three others people, were ruthlessly slaughtered in the Hollywood Hills. The discovery and the murder case that followed became known as the "Helter Skelter" murders. The national spotlight suddenly shifted from Washtenaw County and the sullen John Collins, to the West Coast and wildman Charles Manson. The spotlight suddenly dimmed at the Ann Arbor courthouse.

The case of the Michigan murders faded into the background, except for those who knew the victims and/or the suspect, or for people who lived in the area during those tense two summers between 1967 and 1969. The dim shroud of time, misinformation leaked by and to the press, the Blue Wall of Silence, and a "fictionalized" account of the murders rushed into print because of a publishing deadline, have obfuscated many of the facts and details of this case.

It should be remembered that John Norman Collins was convicted of only one of the seven murders attributed to him. The public knows a great deal more about Karen Sue Beineman than any of the other victims because of the public court proceedings. But Mary Flezsar, Joan Schell, Maralynn Skelton, Dawn Basom, Alice Kalom, and Roxie Phillips, the six other murdered young women linked to Collins, have never had their day in court or had their stories told publicly.

An interesting and pertinent development came to light thirty-seven years after John Collins was convicted of murder in the first degree of Karen Sue Beineman. DNA forensic evidence cleared Collins of one of the murders attributed to him. What of that?

(To be continued...)

Rendezvous with Death - Part One

Death comes in many guises and everyone gives up the ghost eventually. It is our mortality which strikes a common chord in human beings. Natural causes take the greatest share of humanity, armed military conflicts decimate our ranks even further, and chance accidents take their toll on many people. Some unfortunate souls embrace death after the pain of living becomes too much for them to bear, but few would argue that the most difficult kind of death for most people to reconcile is the wanton and senseless murder of the young and innocent.

Full of life one moment - facing down death the next - these victims are not only robbed of their futures, but also of their pasts. The memories of family and friends are forever tainted by their unexpected and violent deaths. They carry the pain and the burden of their loved ones passing for their lifetimes, and their sorrow spills onto future generations. All are punished.

In my efforts to tell the complete story of the Michigan murders (1967-1969) of six young women in the Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor area and a seventh murdered woman in Salinas, California, I have gone beyond what was reported in the newspapers and previously written about these crimes. I have tried to reach out to friends and family of the victims to see if some of the loose ends can be tied up.

By reexamining and drawing together evidence and anecdotal accounts from previously un-interviewed parties, I want to tell the larger story of the person alleged to have killed these young women, John Norman Collins. He was tried and convicted for only one of the murders - the sex slaying of Eastern Michigan University freshman, Karen Sue Beineman, in 1969. Six of the seven other killings remain officially unsolved. Anyone who feels he or she has pertinent information regarding any of the principal figures in this series of murders from the late sixties can contact me confidentially at my gmail address: gregoryafournier@gmail.com.

Needless to say, not everyone is sympathetic with my goal of setting the record straight. I hope to tell as much of this case as possible, given the lack of public information available to me. A Washtenaw County court clerk told me last year that public records prior to 1970 are unavailable. The Ypsilanti City Police revealed to me that they don't keep records prior to 2006. The Michigan State Police have informed me that autopsy and forensic reports are not available because these cases are still considered part of an open police investigation. After forty-five years, I'm glad to know the police are still on the case.

(To be continued...)

The Six Guiding Principles of Secular Humanism

Secular Humanism is a belief that humans are responsible for their actions without the presumption of divine intervention or the surrender to fate. Humanists are moved by the human condition and feel society has a responsibility to work for the improvement of life without the interjection of superstition or mythology. Virtue and morality are completely compatible with this philosophy.

      
For more information, check out the link below:
americanhumanist.org