UBC: Keyes, The Michigan Murders

[truepenny]

The Michigan Murders by Edward Keyes

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Although the word gets bandied around far too freely, this does actually deserved to be called a classic.

About the abominable John Norman Collins, this book, first published in 1976, is a painstaking examination of the eight murders he was then believed to have committed. One of them--Jane Louise Mixer--has been linked on DNA evidence to a different killer, Gary Earl Leiterman (and Keyes notes that her murder differed in several ways from the others in the series).

Keyes is a good-to-excellent writer, clear-eyed and sympathetic to cops and witnesses (especially Collins' state trooper uncle, who discovered the crucial evidence against Collins, whom he loved and trusted) and lawyers. It's hard to even be compassionate towards Collins, who was busy committing a string of burglaries just for the thrill of it at the same time he was brutally raping, torturing, and murdering seven young women (that we know about)--six in Michigan and one in California--and who has, in prison, been consistently involved in drug dealing. But Keyes doesn't demonize him; he points out the strange contradictions in Collins' character: polite, gentle, deeply affectionate with family members he loved, great with children--and savagely misogynistic at certain triggers (aside from the expected promiscuity, Collins also lost his shit over pierced ears and menstruation), plus showing a sociopath's disdain for the social contract and other people's needs.

Keyes chose to give pseudonyms to both murderer and victims, which is a decision I'm ambivalent about. It's ceased to be a convention in most true crime, and while it protects the privacy of the families--and privacy they certainly deserve--it also means that our collective memory gets distorted and blurred. If we remember the pseudonyms of the murdered girls, we don't remember their real names, and that seems to me to erase them--which is exactly what Collins was trying to do.

So, a quick key, real name on the left, Keyes' pseudonym on the right:

John Norman Collins <==> James Nolan Armstrong
Mary Terese Fleszar <==> Marilyn Pindar
Joan Elspeth Schell <==> Jill Hersch
Jane Louise Mixer (the ringer) <==> Jeanne Holder
Maralynn Skelton <==> Mary Grace Clemson
Dawn Louise Basom <==> Dale Harum
Alice Elizabeth Kalom <==> Audrey Sakol
Karen Sue Beineman <==> Carol Ann Gebhardt
Roxie Ann Phillips <==> Ginger Lee Neary

Well worth seeking out.



View all my reviews

Comments

[sovay]

Keyes chose to give pseudonyms to both murderer and victims, which is a decision I'm ambivalent about.

Was it a convention at the time when Keyes was writing or just a personal choice on his part?

[kore]

From what I've seen, disguising the victims is still done, but I haven't seen murderers given pseudonyms (although I haven't read a lot of pre-1900 stuff, where most everything is disguised).

[truepenny]

The introduction (I forget who it's by and the Queen of Socks is asleep on my lap) says that it was a convention of the time. Names still get changed to protect privacy, especially of people not directly involved, but in general with modern true crime, part of its selling point is that it's the "real story" behind a case its audience already knows about. So a pseudonym for the murderer would be counter-productive.

[sovay]

(I forget who it's by and the Queen of Socks is asleep on my lap)

That is an incontrovertible reason not to move.

[hominysnark]

I loved this book, which I originally found in a used bookstore for $1.

The pseudonyms irritated me the first time I read it (this was pre-internet days) but when I rediscovered the book a few years back, I immediately hopped online to research, and ended up writing my own key inside the front cover of my sadly deteriorated $1 paperback — I do have a copy of the updated version now, which at the very least has a more appropriate cover.