Keeping Serial Killers Alive in Los Angeles County Jail - Dr. Vonda Pelto, Ph.D

In addition to spending untold hours reading and doing field research for The Rainy Day Murders, my researcher and I have also conducted hundreds of phone and in-person interviews with people who have had some connection with the John Norman Collins case or who have worked in the field of forensics and have some clinical psychology background with serial killers. It's been quite a learning experience.

Last September, I met with Dr. Vonda Pelto at the train station in San Juan Capistrano. I drove up from San Diego, and she drove down from Long Beach, so we could meet and discuss serial killers over lunch. Although this topic doesn't make for good dining conversation generally, she and I had a lively and spirited visit.

Dr. Pelto's job for three years in the 1980s was to keep Los Angeles County Jail's serial killer population alive so they could stand trial. It was a unique job nobody wanted, but she was a single mother of two with a new psych degree who needed a job desperately.

The back story of the job was that "In the late part of 1980, one of the Freeway Killers, Vernon Butts, was arrested and confessed that he and William Bonin had used various knives, ice picks, acid, and chloral hydrate in the commission of six murders. Butts later admitted that he was there but contended that Bonin actually committed the crimes."

LA County prosecutor, John Van de Kamp, offered a plea bargain to Butts rather than the death penalty. Van de Kamp offered Butts life in prison if he would roll over on his partner, William Bonin.

Dr. Kline, head of the Forensic Outpatient Unit at the mens jail, explained to Dr. Pelto at her job interview,

"Butts was poised to testify against his friend, when he became despondent and tired of incarceration. He made the choice to end his life. Hanged himself!

"The District Attorney was mad as hell at us, the press had a field day, and we got a lot of heat over it. Believe me, we can't ever let that happen again.

"Dr. Pelto, after Butts' suicide, we decided to create a new position in the jail's forensic team. We want someone to see the high profile inmates, the men whose names and faces are featured predominately in the news media. That's the job we're offering you....

"The main thing is we have to keep these guys alive during their incarcerations. The State wants the opportunity to extract its own revenge."

***

For seven years prior to this job, Dr. Pelto had worked with

Dr. Vonda Pelto, Ph.D

sexually molested victims and their perpetrators for Orange County Mental Health. She couldn't imagine that the felons in jail could be much worse. So she reluctantly took the job.

After thirty-some years away from that traumatic environment, Dr. Vonda Pelto was finally able to collect her thoughts and write a memoir of her experiences called Without Remorse, published in 2012. 

Pelto writes about the Hillside Stranglers, Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono; the Freeway Killers, Jim Munro and William Bonin; the Sunset Strip Killer, Doug Clark; the Trash Bag Murderers, Elihua Komerchero, Joseph Zakaria, and Yehunda Avital; Arthur Jackson, attempted murder of Theresa Saldana; and wild card, John (The Wadd) Holmes, implicated in the Wonderland Murders.

Dr. Pelto would meet with these men in her office, a converted 8'x10' cell that was retrofitted with a Dutch door. Her work space was situated near the prisoners' phone bank. A barbers' chair was bolted to the floor, and the inmates would be handcuffed to the chair whenever they came in to see her. Usually, inmates were brought in one at a time to be evaluated but not always.

Dr. Pelto's book not only tells her stories of interacting with these psychotic men, but it also tells her story of being a single mother working to raise two daughters. It tells of her long struggle to pass the California State Boards to become a clinical psychologist and go into private practice. Vonda reveals much about her self-doubt and her personal history with men that readers will find deeply revealing. 

Dr. Pelto has sold the movie rights to Without Remorse and a screenplay is in development. I'll be anxious to see the movie when it comes out.

Check out this five minute video link of Dr. Vonda Pelto discussing Without Remorse.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qOojVCekAs

Link to Without Remorse:  http://www.amazon.com/Without-Remorse-Angeles-Serial-Killers/dp/0979585287

John Norman Collins' Last Wish, "I Want To Die on Canadian Soil"

In a recent letter to a Canadian Immigration official, John Norman Collins (JNC) expressed his desire to attempt another International Prisoner Exchange Treaty bid with the country of his birth.

In 1981, Collins was one signature away from being transferred to a prison in Ontario near Toronto when a Marquette Prison inmate blew the whistle on him. 

A letter fell on the desk of the night city desk editor at The Detroit Free Press, William Hart, who ran a story about it after intrepid reporter, Marianne Rzepka, corroborated the details. The story "Transfer to Canada For Killer" was run in the evening edition of the paper, and by morning, the Michigan Associated Press sent the story far and wide throughout the state's media network. 

***

JNC took the words of Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to heart when he made a public statement about there being too many people in Michigan's prisons because of minor drug offenses and an aging prison population. He was sixty-six and one of the oldest inmates at Marquette Branch Prison.

In several prison letters to his cousin, JNC moans about his aches and pains, the indifferent medical staff, and the inadequate services available to him. What he doesn't mention to his cousin is that he often refuses to ante up his co-pay for medical services. I have several prison Administration Hearing documents that detail how JNC refuses to pay, and then he makes an issue of it.

Collins writes that he is a physical wreck from "too much weightlifting and playing hockey," though he still plays handball and basketball whenever he can. He complains about his bad knees, bum hip, and arthritic back, the simple ravages of the aging process many of us Baby Boomers suffer from.

Of a more serious nature was an incident that occurred in May of 2012, which he details in a September 7, 2013 letter to his cousin:

"I did have a scary moment last year. I was going to the Chow Hall with my friend, Big Mike and we just got outside the unit and I CRASHED to the concrete FACE FIRST. I thought I woke right up, BUTT, Big Mike told me I was out for a couple of minutes. I tried getting up but the guards told me to stay down. My face was a bloody mess.

"They took me to Health Care and there was a doctor there and he sent me immediately to the hospital in Marquette. At first they thought I had a heart attack or a stroke. They did over $100,000 of tests on me for a day and a half and found no bleeding in my brain, so they were CORNfused and couldn't find a cause."

JNC now hoped he could parley his private health concerns to portray himself as an old-timer who is a shadow of his former self and a danger to no one. 

If he could only convince a sitting Michigan governor to pardon him or override the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) revocation of his 1981 transfer application, he could be "home" in the country of his birth awaiting a work release program. Of course, JNC needed his Canadian cousin's help with a commitment to sponsor him, to provide a home for him, and to supervise his "reintegration into society." In short, to be responsible for him.

***

In the same letter, JNC asked Chapman to visit him in Marquette Branch Prison which he had never done before. 

Shortly afterwards in an email to me, Chapman wrote:

"He does want to see me face to face for the first time and he wants my help, as he said neither (his brother or sister) have ever offered to 'put him up.' However, I am not sure what to do.

"I know who John is to me, regardless of what he has done in the past... however, never at any time, have I ever found myself afraid of him and I think I would be safe if I had him here. After all, his victims were all women, not men. 

"But with that in mind, I am worried that if I was miraculously able to get him to Canada, I would worry that he might hurt some woman, and I just don't want that on my conscience.

"As well, I am aware of the relationship that he has with some of his "friends" in prison, and I use the term "friends" very loosely. I may be naive, but I am not stupid. So that concerns me. Would he try something on me? I am not being paranoid, just trying to protect myself and my mom.

"Let's say (hypothetically), if John did get back to Canada and I did sponsor him, do you honestly think that my Mom and I would be in danger? I am conflicted now"

My immediate response to John Philip Chapman was:

"John, your cousin is a hardened criminal. Straight up! His own mother had discipline problems with him. He has a self-professed anger management problem. Factor in forty-five years of pent up frustration and rage. I wouldn't take a chance."

John Philip Chapman's quick reply was:

"I will take your advice seriously and be very cautious moving forward with communications with my cousin. The interesting thing about all this is that if this were anyone else, Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, or any other serial killer, I would not even waste any time on the issue.

"I have been writing to him since I was ten years old and obviously too young to understand the kind of person he was then. As the years went by, I suppose I never outgrew that vision I saw of him in my head... but then the facts are what they are. John is NOT where he is by accident or a corrupt legal system... he deserves to be where he is. This is for society's protection and, I suppose, even for him.

"Greg and Ryan, THANK YOU VERY MUCH for not judging me or regarding me in the same circle as my cousin. I am who I am and John is who he is."

***

After nixing the trip to Marquette Prison, Chapman received an unexpected collect call from JNC. Collins needed to strengthen his grip on his wavering cousin and synchronize "their" strategy. 

On September 13, 2013, JNC wrote to Chapman:

"I was so pleased with our phone call. I must admit that I was (a) bit nervous at first. I didn't know what to say. You sound so grown up now. Anyway, it was finally great to break the ice after so many months. You are the most important person in my life right now. I also consider you my best friend."

The message soon shifted into drawing Chapman into JNC's transfer conspiracy:

"We have to watch what we say about Frank (Collins' contact at the Canadian Consulate). I don't know how the process works over there, BUTT it is so easy for the MDOC to simply say no to everything. Hopefully a higher power (the governor) will take over and over-ride the MDOC (VETO)."

***

Early in October, Chapman wrote Collins saying he had been reading internet articles about him and didn't feel comfortable sponsoring him. This must have hit Collins like a punch in the face. 

In an email dated October 7th, JNC began to panic and show desperation:

"I HOPE YOU HAVE HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO THINK OVER YOUR DECISION. WHATEVER THEY SAID WAS A LIE JUST LIKE IT WAS 32 YEARS AGO WITH DELHEY (Washtenaw County Prosecutor). THEY USED THEIR EMAILS TO SCARE YOU. WHO IS IT THAT CONTACTED YOU? 

"YOU HAVE WORKED TOO HARD AND TOO LONG TO LET THEM KEEP US FROM EACH OTHER. YOU HAVE KNOWN ME FOR OVER THIRTY YEARS AND THEM ZERO. THEY MADE YOU OVERACT BECAUSE THEY KNOW YOU ARE A VERY GOOD AND SENSITIVE PERSON. I NEVER HURT(my nephew), AND I WOULD NEVER HURT YOU OR YOUR MOTHER. NEVER!!!

"I WANT TO CALL YOU TOMORROW IF I CAN. PLEASE DON'T DO ANYTHING UNTIL YOU RECEIVE MY NEXT LETTER. YOU WILL RECEIVE ONE THIS WEEK AND ANOTHER ONE THE WEEK AFTER. PLEASE READ THEM BOTH BEFORE MAKING YOUR FINAL DECISION. 

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO PROTECT ME... NOT SELL ME DOWN THE RIVER. I DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY SENT YOU, BUT IT IS A LIE AND THEY WANT TO SCARE YOU INTO THINKING THAT I WOULD HURT YOU JUST LIKE THEY DID 32 YEARS AGO.

"PLEASE DON'T FALL FOR THIS PLOY. I'M OUT OF TIME. I LOVE YOU, JOHN, WITH ALL MY HEART. I KNOW THAT WE CAN BE A REAL FAMILY. BYE FOR NOW. LOVE ALWAYS."

In an October 17th email that John Philip Chapman sent me, the Canadian transfer saga came to an abrupt end:

"Greg, I really want this man out of my life for good, and I seriously want to cut all ties with him. There was a time in my life up until recently that I did care about my cousin. After all, he is family, and I believe that family needs to stick together and support each other, but that has its limitations.

"For over 30 years, I believed my cousin and thought what he was telling me was the truth. It was complete and total bullshit. John tells half-truths and is an excellent manipulator, that is for sure. All I got to see over those years was a side of John that he wanted me to see and not who he really is.... However, I just do not want to communicate with him anymore, and I see no value in doing so."

When JNC tried to call Chapman back at his home, John Philip decided to block all future phone calls from his infamous relative. With that, the Canadian International Prisoner Exchange became an impossible reality for Collins. JNC had exhausted all of his appeals and every avenue for an early release. 

My advice for Mr. Collins is that he make an application to the Make a Wish Foundation and see how that goes.

But the Story Goes On!

Background on JNC's first attempt at a Canadian Prisoner Exchange: http://fornology.blogspot.com/2013/06/john-norman-collins-and-canadian-prison.html

John Norman Collins' Canadian Border Bid

On Wednesday, August 7, 2013, John Norman Collins (JNC) finally got around to asking his Canadian first-cousin what he had been edging towards for months, sponsorship for an international prisoner exchange.

In letter after letter, JNC stresses in elevated and maudlin detail the close personal and emotional ties that bind him and John Philip Chapman together. "I love you, Little Brother" is the most common refrain in  his letters. JNC repeatedly plays the "happy family card" and John Philip quietly accedes. 

For his part, Chapman did little to discourage Collins' line of thinking because it kept the door open for his older cousin to reveal more details about his complicity in some of the other murders he is thought to have committed but was never charged with. 

Chapman was secure in the thought that this "sponsorship" ploy was pure delusion on the part of his cousin. After all, Cousin John had attempted the same thing in 1981 to circumvent the Life Sentence decreed by The People of The State of Michigan, and he had failed. 

So you can imagine how Chapman felt when JNC sent him a copy of a letter he had written to a Canadian Immigration official in Ontario, Canada, a mere month after he had approached Chapman for his help.
__________

Marquette Branch Prison
John Collins/Chapman 126833
Sunday, September 8, 2013

Honorable Frank Dale:

First of all, I'd like to thank you for your much needed participation and support in my transfer effort to get back home to Canada. Perhaps my cousin, John, has already told you that I tried transferring back to Canada in 1981, under the Prisoner Exchange Treaty between the USA & Canada. That turned out to be a real disaster for me.

Back in 1980, I applied for a transfer and Mr. Douglas Frame was the Canadian Consul at the time. I explained to him that I had a "HIGH PROFILE" case and that it was important for him to move quickly in an attempt to keep my transfer from becoming a "MEDIA CIRCUS." 

Mr. Frame assured me that there wouldn't be any problems and that all of his previous transfers went without a hitch. Once again, I explained my position to Mr. Frame and he assured me once again that there wouldn't be any problems.

Instead of processing my paperwork immediately, Mr. Frame chose to wait several months before coming to visit me. He told me that he and his son were coming up here on a fishing trip and he would visit me then. Those EXTRA COUPLE OF MONTHS cost me my transfer.

Initially, Michigan approved my transfer and so did Washington, who forwarded the paperwork to Canada (Ottawa) for final approval. The paperwork sat on the desk of the person that was supposed to sign the papers for another month because he was off in a foreign country trying to get a relative transferred back to Canada on drug charges.

During that time, the MEDIA learned about my transfer and the victim's family contacted their State Representatives who applied pressure on the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC). At that point, I had already been transferred near Detroit for my Verification Hearing and appointed an attorney to represent me.

I thought I was on my way Home. Instead, Michigan rescinded my transfer on the grounds that Canada had not FINALIZED my paperwork yet. Needless to say, I was devastated as was my family over in Canada.

On the "POSITIVE SIDE" right now is the fact that the Attorney General (of the United States), Eric Holder, and the Michigan Governor, Rick Snyder, have BOTH come out vocally and said that we have too many people in prison. They spoke about releasing those with Minor Drug cases and the Elderly inmates that are costing the taxpayer way too much money. Hopefully, that will play into our hands this time around.

The MDOC will simply say that LIFERS will not be transferred because of me. If we get Governor Snyder to APPROVE my transfer, then it is out of MDOC's hands. The USA only honor treaties when it is convenient for them....

In closing, I would once again like to thank you for your support. Hopefully, I'll be able to one day "SHAKE YOUR HAND" in person. My dream is to die on Canadian Soil!

Respectfully,
John Collins/Chapman
__________

The conclusions of the above letter bear closer examination. 

JNC's Canadian family was not "devastated" about Collins being refused his transfer to Canada in 1981. In point of fact, both his birth father and his uncle declined to sponsor John for the international transfer. 

And although it is true that a delay did occur in the processing of JNC's transfer application, the official reason for the MDOC veto was sent to John Norman Collins on January 20, 1982. Then Deputy Director of MDOC, Robert Brown, Jr. wrote: 

"I recently learned through diplomatic channels that you would have minimal family contact if in Canada since most of your family lives here in the States. Further, you spent the majority of your life here in the States.

"Since the main purpose of the treaty is to provide for re-integration into society and since this re-integration would not be possible in Canada, I am revoking our consideration of your transfer request."
__________

Detroit/Windsor Tunnel

One common trait of serial killers is that they learn from their mistakes. Had John Norman Collins gotten any smarter in forty-two years?

For more background on JNC's former border bid, view this link:
http://fornology.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-canadian-dream-of-john-norman.html

John Norman Collins Mail Call - Coming Clean With My Readers

For three and a half years, I have focused most of my worldly attention on researching and writing about John Norman Collins (JNC) and the Washtenaw County murders of 1967-1969. 

I would have been finished with The Rainy Day Murders six months ago but for an unforeseen development which I have been holding back from my readers. 

My researcher, Ryan M. Place, and I have privately received over twenty prison letters and a handful of emails from two separate sources that JNC had written to from April 2013 until October 2013.

The first cache of letters we received was from a woman who had been corresponding with JNC for close to a year. Sandra contacted us when Collins agreed to answer some of our questions through a third party, his current girlfriend, Sandra. 

We had written Collins numerous times asking for an interview, but he decided to use Sandra as a virtual "human shield" to play games with us. I am sure he believed that going through her would give him some level of control over the interview, but in reality, it was merely weak dealing.

Collins believed he had a firm grasp on her, but his glib, evasive, and sometimes disturbing answers to our written questions about the young women's murders began to turn her off, and she began to internalize her feelings about the defenseless victims of his carnage. What he said and how he said it was upsetting to her.

He began making lewd remarks in his prison letters. Rather than "charming" her with his sweet talk as he had been doing, he suddenly became vulgar and suggestive which bothered her. 

Finally, Sandra wrote to us saying she was through with Collins. Then she surprised us with an offer we couldn't refuse, "Would you like me to send you some of his prison letters?"

"Yeah!"

Ryan and I couldn't believe our luck. Here was an exclusive information drop handed to us. Primary resource material is the meat of research, and now we had some prison letters from JNC himself. Sandra sent us twelve personal letters and many pages of notes she had taken from several "collect" phone calls Collins had made to her from the prison yard.

Disgusted with him, Sandra finally told Collins that she had sent us the letters he had written to her. The master manipulator had been double-dealt and he was furious. 

Some days afterwards, in a phone call to me, Sandra said that John had called her back and apologized profusely. He said he had been under a lot of stress lately and needed to talk with her face-to-face, necessitating a visit to Marquette prison. 

"It's URGENT!" he told her. 

Stock Photograph - Depicts High Security, Non-Contact Visitation

For some unspecified reason, she recanted and drove several hundred miles up to Michigan's Upper Peninsula to finally face the prison inmate she had been writing for months. Although I wasn't made privy to their entire conversation, I do know this, JNC asked Sandra to marry him.

That is the last thing we have heard from Sandra. Her phone is still connected, but she isn't answering our calls.

Then something even more remarkable happened. In May of 2013, I received an email from a person who claimed to be JNC's last living Canadian blood relative. He had been investigating the internet for information on his infamous cousin and read several of my recent blog posts about him. 

 

The Canadian emailer wanted to correct the mistaken perceptions concerning his Uncle Rich, the Canadian birth father of John Norman Collins. What had been previously printed about his uncle was blatantly inaccurate, and he wanted me to set the record straight in The Rainy Day Murders.

More about the JNC Canadian family connection in my next post.

The Grande Ballroom - Is There a Future For Detroit's Former Rock and Roll Mecca?

The Grande Ballroom as it exists in ruins today.

In the mid to late sixties, the Grande Ballroom was the place to be on the weekends in Detroit. The Motor City had no shortage of high energy, head banging garage bands competing with one another in frequent "Battle of the Bands" events. Local groups like MC5 (Motor City 5), SRC (my fav), Frost, The Stooges with Iggy Pop, The Amboy Dukes, Bob Seger, Grand Funk Railroad, and many others each had a dedicated following.

Top-shelf bands from around the country, and from England in particular, saw Detroit's Grande Ballroom as the undisputed rock
and roll Mecca of the Midwest. The Jefferson Airplane, Cream with Eric Clapton, Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin, Jethro Tull, The Spirit, The Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Savoy Brown, The Moody Blues, and many others played on the Grande stage that once hosted the Glenn Miller Band, Benny Goodman, the Dorsey brothers, and other swing dance era big bands. There was a lot of music history made within these walls.

During the turbulent Sixties, the Grande Ballroom served up an uneasy mixture of high energy music and counter culture propaganda centered around Detroit's self-proclaimed hippie guru, John Sinclair. John managed some local Detroit bands and led a group called Trans Love Energies, which morphed into the White Panther Party when the group moved to Ann Arbor because of police harassment.
 
Is there a future for a restored Grande Ballroom in the new Detroit? Some people think so. Check out the link for more discussion of restoring this landmark which holds so many memories for inner-city and suburban Detroiters.

 http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/detroit/index.ssf/2013/07/rock_and_roll_hall_of_fame_off.html

For more on the Grande Ballroom: http://fornology.blogspot.com/2012/04/grande-ballroom-detroits-sixties-rock.html

Tuesday, December 10th, "A New Kind of Monster" on Investigation Discovery

Early in 2013, I was asked by XCON Productions if I would be interested in appearing on an episode of a new true crime series they were doing called A Crime To Remember. 

One of their staffers had seen my blog posts on the Washtenaw County Murders of 1967-1969 and their presumed killer, John Norman Collins. 

I say "presumed" because Collins was only charged with one of the seven local murders before being sentenced to "Life" in prison. With his arrest and conviction, the series of grisly sex-slayings in the Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, Michigan ended.

The episode entitled "A New Kind of Monster" will air this Tuesday, December 10th, at 10:00 PM Eastern time. Other people appearing on the program will be Dr. Katherine Ramsland, forensic psychologist; Larry Mathewson, former Eastern Michigan University policeman; Douglas Harvey, former Washtenaw County Sheriff; and others. 

Re-enactments using the actual names of the people involved in these matters will be a feature of this program, which is a thumbnail sketch of an extremely complicated, controversial, and convoluted case.

I was put on the program because of the strength of my blog posts on the subject at large. For the last three and a half years, my researcher, Ryan M. Place and I have been working tirelessly on these other cases which have remained officially unsolved. 


Soon, I will be finished with the first draft of The Rainy Day Murders. My treatment of the subject benefits from forty-five years of hindsight and the living history of people who have had some direct connection with these events. 

Once my true crime account goes through revision and editing, I hope to get it published sometime next year. 

In addition to giving the latest information known about each of the murders and recreating the "lost" court case, which the Washtenaw County Courthouse has "purged" from their records, my book will cover for the first time ever, John Norman Collins' prison years and his efforts to get out of prison.

When Ryan and I started this project almost four years ago, we could not have imagined where it would lead. Many thanks to all the individuals who have come forward with information on these cases and also to the many people in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor affected by this dark period in Washtenaw County's history who were willing to share their stories with us. 

William Treml  (1929 - 2013)

And a special thanks needs to go out to all the reporters who covered these murders and the subsequent trial, especially William Treml of The Ann Arbor News, who died last month. 

Without their efforts, this story would have been lost to time and institutional neglect. A debt needs to be paid to history, and its on their shoulders I stand.

Check this link for more information about the press and these cases: http://fornology.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-fourth-estate-proves-its-worth-in.html

The Roxie Ann Phillips California Case. Did John Norman Collins Act Alone?

In August of 1969 after working on a recent unsolved murder case in Salinas, California for two frustrating weeks, a tired police investigator sat down to dinner in front of his television to watch the national news. 

A break had been made in the Michigan murder case of Karen Sue Beineman. An unlikely suspect by the name of John Norman Collins, a student at Eastern Michigan University had been arrested.

The story went on to say that Collins had recently returned from a short vacation in California. The network showed a picture of him taking a perp walk into the Washtenaw County Courthouse in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Mention was also made in the story that a silver Oldsmobile Cutlass was believed to have been used to dump the coed's body. 

Other circumstances of the crimes were eerily similar. Both women died of strangulation, both were sexually violated, both were dumped in secluded areas, and both were wearing only their sandals. 

The Salinas Police Department contacted the Michigan State Police to share information. When the MSP were told that the Salinas police had found an abandoned house trailer thought to be the murder site, Detective Tom Nasser and Sergeant Kennard Christensen from the Plymouth Crime Center flew out to Salinas to help with their investigation. Both men testified before the Monterey County Grand Jury inquest.

Among other damning evidence presented before the grand jury, an eyewitness placed a young man at the scene of seventeen year old Roxie Ann Phillips' abduction. She saw Roxie get into a silver-gray Olds Cutlass with Michigan plates. Then he sped away, running a red light and making a hard right turn. The witness remembered the red flowered outfit Roxie was wearing that day.

A Monterey County California Grand Jury indicted Collins for the murder of Roxy Ann Phillips, a recent visitor to California from Milwaulkie, Oregon. After some bureaucratic squabbling between each state's Attorney General, Michigan Governor Milliken rejected California Governor Ronald Reagan's request for extradition. 

Vice President George Bush, President Gerald Ford, California Governor Ronald Reagan, and Michigan Governor William Milliken

California had a stronger case than Michigan, and it was a death penalty state. But because of the community impact that the seven unsolved murders of young women had in Washtenaw County, Governor Milliken had no choice but to try Collins in Michigan for the Beineman murder. "Life" behind bars was the maximum prison sentence a Michigan judge could levy.

***

Accompanying Collins on his fateful trip to California was his Motor Wheel work buddy and housemate, Andrew Manuel. There had been six unsolved murders in the area. Police from five departments were swarming over the area, and both men were also feeling some heat for a spate of break-ins and burglaries in the city.

Andrew was from Salinas, California and thought a month away from Ypsilanti might do them both some good. Collins and Manuel fraudulently rented a 17' long house trailer in Ypsilanti and towed it behind a silver Olds Cutlass, a new car belonging to Collins' mother, Loretta.

In their investigation of Roxie Ann Phillips' murder, the Salinas police reported finding an abandoned house trailer behind the home of Andrew Manuel's grandparents, the Salinas forensic team went to work. It was discovered that every fingerprint inside and outside the trailer had been wiped clean. When Andrew's grandparents were interviewed, they complained that the boys didn't even say goodbye before they left.

The evidence against Collins for the murder of Roxie Ann Phillips was the strongest case against him. But the detailing and abandoning of a house trailer doesn't make Andrew Manuel his accomplice in her murderer. It is apparent at the very least that he was fully aware of what his buddy had done, and he helped Collins cover it up by destroying evidence.  He may also have been an accessory after the fact by helping Collins dump the body.

Why then would these guys cut their trip in half, fully detail a 17' house trailer, and then abandon it? One can only wonder what the conversation between them was on their trip back to Michigan.

***

After Collins and Manuel returned, Andrew disappeared immediately and was eventually arrested in Phoenix by the FBI. He was extradited from Arizona and returned to Michigan where he took and passed several lie detector tests clearing him of the murders of Roxy Ann Phillips and Karen Sue Beineman. 

Manuel was arrested for "theft by conversion" of the house trailer and selling stolen jewelry from an Ypsilanti break-in. He was given one year probation and a $100 fine, on the understanding that he would testify for the prosecution in the case against Collins. 

Andrew was given immunity. He violated his probation agreement and fled the area, only to be arrested to serve out his term in the Washtenaw County Jail. On the stand at the Collins trial, Manuel became "Helen Keller." He saw and heard nothing.