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 John Norman Collins Movie - Part Three of Three

In 1976, William Martin, (aka: Martin "Marty" Bacow), billed himself as executive producer for a movie based on the Washtenaw County murders of seven young women in 1967-1969 and their accused killer, John Norman Collins. 

He reported in an Ypsilanti Press article dated October 13th, that he had completed the script seven months before.  The movie was slated to be called Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, named after the children's bedtime prayer. "The filming should start sometime after the new year," Martin said.

William Martin, known as Marty, hired a New York film director (who wishes not to be identified) to assemble a film crew and come to Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor to shoot a low budget film. 

This Director of Photography (DP) says he and his crew drove two film trucks to Ann Arbor only to find that "Marty had no script, just a sketchy outline and nothing else. He had no cast, no locations, and he had only partial financing for the project." William Martin was confident that publicity would attract investors and additional funding, the life blood of the movie industry.

Rory Calhoun in "The Texan"

William Martin (executive producer) named local attorney Jay Kaufman to be the producer. It was his job to raise the money. Somehow, Martin was able to land Hollywood actors Rory Calhoun, to play a Michigan Sate Police post commander, and Kathryn Grayson of Hollywood musical fame, to play John

Kathryn Grayson in "Kiss Me Kate"

Norman Collins' aunt, Sandra Leik. These actors were represented by the same booking agent, who it was thought, owed Marty a favor. 
Psychic Peter Hurkos was hired to play himself and Bill Bonds, a local Detroit television newscaster, was also hired to play himself. Other roles would be cast by locals as they went along.


The DP said they shot footage for four or five weeks. On a typical day, there would be no casting and no preset location. "Marty rode around in a Cadillac convertible and literally acquired a cast and locations along the way. We were shooting cinema verite."

"For example, we went to the Michigan State Police headquarters and suddenly real state policemen were playing troopers in the movie, and we were shooting scenes in and around the police post."

Towards the end of the exterior and location shooting, Martin Bacow (aka: William Martin) was being questioned by Federal authorities about the disappearance of Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa and where his body might be buried. Because of the controversy, word came down that the studio pulled the plug on the project.

The film crew was left high and dry. This was the weirdest film shoot any of them had ever been on, and they speculated that the film may have been a scheme to raise money and defraud investors.

William Martin produced several low budget movies over his career. One of them, Jacktown, is about a Jackson Prison inmate who tries to go straight in Royal Oak, Michigan. A short viewing of this film will convince anyone that William Martin (Martin Bacow) was no filmmaker.

When I wrote and contacted Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, I was told that they had no knowledge of Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep. Their archivist checked their records and film vault and found no evidence of any film rushes or publicity stills from the movie. They had no record or association with the film.

Further research on Martin "Marty" Bacow (aka: William Martin), discovered in a book entitled The Last Mogul by Dennis McDougal, revealed "Martin Bacow, a Hollywood jack of all trades, began his career in Southern California in 1948 as a boxing announcer, who then branched out over the next four decades to become an actor, screenwriter, labor negotiator, and a B movie producer."

A close associate of Teamster President Jackie Presser, Bacow was known as the Teamster's man in Hollywood. It was rumored he could start and settle labor disputes in Tinsel Town. 

The DP recollected that during the filming in Ann Arbor that "Marty was always seen in the presence of two Teamster consultants, William 'Candy' Davidson and Marvin 'The Steel Broker' Mulligan, who acted as Martin's private security."

Lost JNC Movie post - part one: http://fornology.blogspot.com/2012/05/the-lost-john-norman-collins-movie-part.html 

Lost JNC Movie post - part two: http://fornology.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-lost-john-norman-collins-movie-part.html

The Lost John Norman Collins Movie - Part Two

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep was writer/producer/director William Martin's attempt to tell the story of the coed killings, alleged to have been committed by John Norman Collins in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, Michigan, between 1967 and 1969. The title comes from the well-known children's bedside prayer.

Martin made an earlier film in Michigan called Jacktown, the nickname for the world's largest walled prison at the time - Jackson State Prison. It was an uneasy mix of documentary footage from the Jackson prison riot in the 1950s, location shooting in Royal Oak, Michigan, and an uninspired script with wooden acting. What makes this movie fun to watch is how really bad it is.

As with Jacktown, Martin used seasoned actors in the lead roles for Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep and wanted some local talent to play several of the murdered girls. Local actress, Kathy Pierce of Chelsea, Michigan, was chosen to play the role of Karen Sue Beineman, the only murdered coed Collins was convicted of killing. Allison Date from Ann Arbor had also been cast as one of the victims.

As other writers have done in the past, Martin changed the names of the victims, which over time has obscured the girls' identities. Karen Sue Beineman was renamed Carol Ann Gebhardt in one account, Karry B. in another, and Norma Jean Fenneman in Martin's movie. By my count, the seven victims are referred to by no fewer than twenty-eight names in various treatments of this material. Is it any wonder the public is so confused about this case? John Norman Collins' character was to be called Brian Caldwell, played by veteran actor, Robert Purvey (See bio link for more information about him).

At first, Martin said he encountered lots of local resistance, but after the The Michigan Murders came out in 1976, resistance became pointless. Then, Collins' lawyers tried to get an injunction against the film because it prejudiced the appeals process against their client. At his own expense, Martin, offered to close down production of his film if John Collins would take a lie-detector test exonerating himself. He never did.

More serious was an Ann Arbor News report from July 30th, 1977, about William Martin being approached by "a large man with a beard" at about 10:00 AM as he was preparing for the day's shoot. The burly man poked his finger into Martin's chest and told him, "You, you're dead. We'll kill you!" Afterwards, Martin told of other threats to him and some of the film's stars. The article goes on to say, "a truckload of road blocks led some to believe that this film would never be made."

Last week, actor Robert Purvey contacted my researcher with a different story. He said that Martin had only half a script and asked Purvey to help write the story as they went along. They spent their days on location and their evenings feverishly preparing for the next day's shooting. Once the crew returned to Hollywood, there were additional studio scenes to shoot and post production costs skyrocketed, so the project was shelved.

Probably just as well. The story of the murders of these young woman deserves to be told accurately - not cobbled together like some mystery movie of the week. If William Martin's early film, Jacktown, is any indication, it is better that Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep never saw the light of day.

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

Joyce Maynard's New Novel, After Her, and the Current Movie Based on Her Novel, Labor Day

Wednesday night, I had the pleasure of attending one of Joyce Maynard's book talks at Warwick's independent bookstore in La Jolla, California. She was promoting her current novel, After Her. When her presentation ended, we chatted briefly afterwards and exchanged books.

After Her is a novel loosely based on The Trailside Killer case in Marin County, California in the late 1970s. Joyce tells the tale of two sisters and their love for their philandering, detective father whose job it is to capture the Trailside Killer. After Her is a complex thriller and a real page turner.

Joyce may be best known for the novel To Die For, which was made into a movie directed by Gus Van Sant, starring Nicole Kidman in one of her best roles ever.


An aspiring local weather girl will do whatever it takes to make it in television, even having her husband murdered by three teens. The movie is better than I make it sound. It is a dark comedy based on a real incident.

Joyce Maynard's book, Internal Combustion, is about Nancy Seaman, an award winning fourth grade teacher, who went to Home Depot and bought an axe to kill her ex-Ford Motor Company engineer husband in the garage of their Farmington Hills, Michigan home.

Mrs. Seaman attempted to use the "battered wife" defense, but her trial revealed a disturbing history of family dysfunction and a pattern of sociopathic behavior on her part. When Joyce started writing this story, she instinctively sided with the wife, but upon closer examination of the facts and her own research, another picture of Nancy Seaman emerged which made Joyce change her mind about the case.

Joyce Maynard's novel Labor Day has been made into a film and is currently showing in theaters. It is directed by Jason Reitman and stars Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, and Toby Maguire. I haven't seen this yet, so I won't comment on it.

Joyce did say she met documentary filmmaker, Michael Moore, at the Telluride Film Festival recently after a screening of Labor Day. He was coming out of the men's room and spotted her.

"You won't believe what's going on inside the men's restroom, Joyce," he said suppressing a grin.

"What?" she asked, waiting for the punchline.

"Grown men are in there crying their eyes out."

I have to see this movie.

Joyce Maynard

In the link below, Joyce criticizes the new Ken Burns' documentary about J.D. Salinger, having been an eighteen year old victim of the predatory Salinger.

When asked why she participated in the biography, she replied, "I decided that I would speak for myself rather than have others speak about me."

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/130904/telluride-joyce-maynard-slams-salinger-documentary-says-author-

Fornology on Web Radio - This Friday, September 6th - 8:30 PM Eastern/5:30 PM Pacific Time

My interview cancelled from last week had technical difficulties but was rescheduled for this Friday. I hope you can listen in. Call me if you have a question. Thanks!

 

This Friday, September 6th, I’ll be doing a live web radio interview for The Patrick Walters Show out of Roxboro, North Carolina. I’ll be talking about my book, Zug Island: A Detroit Riot Novel and topics related to it. I hope to steer the interview towards the subject of my current project, serial killer John Norman Collins and The Rainy Day Murders.

This live webcast is on

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/trianglevariety

8:30 PM Eastern time/5:30 PM Pacific time

Friday, September 6th, 2013

This is a call-in show. If you have any questions about my books or my blog <fornology.blogspot.com>, the number to call is (949) 272-9578. Drop me a line!

Public School Education - Not a Melting Pot - But a Rich, Savory Stew by guest blogger Roger Huie

I've long considered myself lucky to have spent my career as a high school teacher, particularly in a school that served a multi-ethnic and multi-socioeconomic student population. I saw that regardless of background almost all students want an education and worked to get one. That even the ones who didn't appear to care about their education actually did care. Sometimes I wouldn't recognize this until years later when I would run into an apparent underachiever who was doing quite nicely in his/her life, who was pleased for the opportunity to share this and to tell me that I and other teachers had made a difference.

I also realized that not every student starts with the same opportunities. The children of the poor and illiterate, even if they have the same native intelligence, start out considerably behind the children of middle and professional classes. If you've not been read to, if there's no reading material in the home outside of food labels, if you are not surrounded by the products of success or even the hope of it, then academic achievement, let alone financial achievement may not be a priority or even seem a realistic goal.

Nor is every student destined to be a rocket scientist. Most teachers take each student from where they are when they enter their classroom and try to take them as far as they can go. This is why, even though I coached most of my career, I minimized competition in my classroom: If we are trying to lift all students why create an environment in which there are winners and losers. The ultimate competition is with yourself, whether in academia or in sport. We should encourage students to achieve to the best of their ability, and understand that not all of them will achieve the same heights.

Finally, I was lucky to work with colleagues from a variety of ethnic groups and all walks of life that were, no matter our differences, united in our efforts to help our students achieve. Knowing white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Christians, Muslims, and Jews (I could go on) as professional educators helped alleviate many of the prejudices humans are heir to. And to those who are still engaged in teaching, I commend you for your efforts. Regardless of the bad press that swirls around our profession, if you are doing your job, your students know it, even if they don't recognize it or acknowledge it now.

One teacher answers the question, "What do you make?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5yg0u1MkDI