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John Norman Collins

Also known as: Michigan Murders, Co-Ed Killer, Ypsilanti Ripper, John Norman Chapman

Active
1967–1969
Region
Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
States
CA, MI
Kind
Serial
Status
Convicted
Victims
7

Between 1967 and 1969, a series of young women and girls were killed around Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, Michigan, in what became known as the "Michigan Murders". John Norman Collins, an Eastern Michigan University student, was arrested in July 1969 after the murder of EMU student Karen Sue Beineman and was convicted of her murder in 1970 and sentenced to life without parole. Investigators attributed several other Michigan killings and one in California to him, but he was never tried for any of them, and he has always denied guilt.

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Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

Timeline of locations

  1. 1967
    Collins's rented house near EMU (Killer's residence, approximate area)

    Collins, an EMU elementary-education student, rented a house about a block south of the campus.

  2. August 7, 1967
    Abandoned farm, Superior Township (Recovery site, approximate area)

    Mary Fleszar disappeared in Ypsilanti; she was found about a month later on an abandoned farm in Superior Township.

  3. July 5, 1968
    Roadside, Ann Arbor area (Recovery site, approximate area)

    Joan Schell was found beside a road in the Ann Arbor area, five days after she was last seen.

  4. March 25, 1969
    Earhart Road, Ann Arbor (Recovery site, approximate area)

    Maralynn Skelton, last seen hitchhiking in Ann Arbor, was found off Earhart Road.

  5. April 16, 1969
    Ypsilanti (Recovery site, approximate area)

    Dawn Basom was last seen near the old Ypsilanti Public Schools service center and was found the next day on a remote road near Ypsilanti.

  6. June 9, 1969
    Field off North Territorial Road (Recovery site, approximate area)

    Alice Kalom disappeared walking home from a party in Ann Arbor and was found in a field near an abandoned farmhouse off North Territorial Road.

  7. July 13, 1969
    Carmel Highlands, California (Recovery site, approximate area)

    Roxie Ann Phillips, who vanished in June 1969, was found in a ravine in Carmel Highlands. Monterey County indicted Collins in 1970, but he was never tried.

  8. July 23, 1969
    Downtown Ypsilanti (Abduction, approximate area)

    Karen Sue Beineman was last seen at a wig shop in downtown Ypsilanti.

  9. July 23, 1969
    Uncle's house, College Heights, Ypsilanti (Crime scene, approximate area)

    Investigators determined Beineman was killed in the basement of the home of Collins's uncle, a state police sergeant, which Collins was watching while the family was away. Evidence found there tied him to her death.

  10. July 26, 1969
    Gully near the Huron River, Ann Arbor (Recovery site, approximate area)

    Beineman was found in a wooded gully off Riverside Drive near the Huron River in Ann Arbor.

  11. June 2, 1970
    Washtenaw County Courthouse, Ann Arbor (Court / trial)

    Collins was tried in Washtenaw County Circuit Court for Beineman's murder only. The jury convicted him of first-degree murder on August 19, 1970, and he was sentenced to life without parole.

  12. 1977
    Marquette Branch Prison (Prison)

    Collins was moved to Marquette Branch Prison in the Upper Peninsula in 1977 and spent much of his sentence there.

Watch, listen, read

Read

  • The Michigan Murders (1976, Edward Keyes)
  • Terror in Ypsilanti: John Norman Collins Unmasked (2016, Gregory A. Fournier)

Sources

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.