Someone emailed me and asked what I knew about Jill’s bike.  In going through some of the FOIA documents, I found four times where the bike was mentioned.  One is in a document called Major Case Investigation Grant, Finding the Child Killer in the Woodward Corridor.  The document describes “[o]ne unexplained aspect of the case:  Jill’s bike was found by a neighborhood boy on the afternoon of December 27 behind the Valenti and Lieberman offices on N. Main Street in Royal Oak; no one knows whether  she rode it there on the 22nd when she disappeared of whether it was placed there later.”

The second is an additional laboratory report (not attached here) which simply states that the bike was received on January 5, 1977 at 0900 hours from Michael Sinke, Latent Print Unit, Warren Laboratory.

The third mention is in a lab report by Charlotte Day, dated January 11, 1977, which states that “Standard paint from the van is not the same as the smears of foreign paint on a bicycle submitted 5 Jan. 77.

The fourth indicates that the bike was photographed and processed and that no identifiable latent prints were obtained.

Scan 2018-7-15 11.35.39

Ok, here is more from my vault–the six giant bins of documents I saved and hoped to never have to access again.  The shit I keep out in my garage and cover with a sheet so I don’t have to absorb it when I park my car and that I keep out of my house unless I need to loosen small portions to consult, because I don’t want the bad juju in my living space.  I will eventually scan it all into my computer, but it will take more effort that it is to train for a marathon.  Think I’m kidding?  I’m not.  Get ready, because I’m going to unload this shit because no one else will in the near future.

Here is a short amalgamation of an email exchange in 2009 between me and the smartest person I know concerning our friendly, upstanding, suburban citizen pedophile, Chris Busch.  If you recognize the person I am emailing back and forth with , please do not post with a comment patting yourself on the back for figuring it out.  This person does not wish to be recognized.  I am just going on the record that the following is not all from my brain and is melded together.  Here is an important point–AGAIN, THE YEAR OF THIS EMAIL EXCHANGE IS 2009.  I will follow the exchange with one of many, many disturbing emails I received from someone way outside my immediate circle who was brave enough to reach out.

This first email exchange references an online forum discussing the OCCK case, and is dated July 27, 2009  Responses are melded together, you will get the picture.

First of all, you know Busch had to have been in trouble with the B’ham PD before and it got swept under the rug (pre-OCCK).  Second, Helen [Dagner] has always tried to figure out why and under what circumstances Tobin left the B’ham PD.  I think Tobias or somebody close to the cop shop may have intimated to her that there was some financial messing around or something like that, but of course no one Helen has spoken to would talk about it.  And Tobias croaked a few years ago.

You know the Buschs tossed that fucker into some loony bin after all of this went down.  I wonder how that could be traced down.  I’m sure it was Europe, too.  He had spent practically his entire childhood in Switzerland, for god’s sake.

Here’s one for you–March 22, 1978, The Daily Tribune:  “[Krease] also says some persons believe the killer may be in a mental hospital committed there by wealthy family members.  ‘Perhaps someone knows about it, but feels that because he is being treated, there is no reason to come forward.'”

And another–Eccentric [Birmingham Observer and Eccentric], June 15, 1978:  Discusses theories on why the killer has not struck again:  “The killer is in a mental institution:  The theory is that the killer’s family had him committed and never notified authorities because they believed this would prevent him from killing again.” [Um, sorry, but most of the cops I have met (there are very few exceptions), especially from back in the day, are not this bright and would not have pulled this out of their asses.  Nice try, and actually way to expose your bullshit and what actually happened, stupid asses!]

And again–Detroit News, December 11, 1978 (two weeks or so after Busch offed himself or was killed by someone):  Discussing how task force will be reactivated if necessary and how killer could have stopped killing:  “If I had to pin it down, I would guess that he’s in an institution or that he’s dead,’ [Lt. Robert] Roberson said, ‘but I wouldn’t bet 10 cents on it and I can’t support it [the fuck you can’t, I’ll take your bet and raise you $10K].  Anything’s a possibility.’  What disturbs the 23-year State Police the most is his suspicion that his investigators never came close to the killer [your instincts blow, pal] and the conviction that someone could help identify the man [ya think?!].  ‘Either someone has absolute direct knowledge or at least suspicions that a friend or a relative is the killer, and has not come forward with it,’ Robertson said.  ‘If the right person would call us, hopefully he’d be caught before the day is out.'”  [Right, motherfucker.]

Related is the December 1977 article in People [Magazine]–“Others believe the man may be in a mental institution.  As one police detective points out Timmy King’s body was dumped on Gill Road just a few miles from Northville State Hospital.  The killer had to travel down a badly torn-up section of Eight Mile Road to reach the Gill [Road] dump site [where my brother’s body was tossed]–a route someone unfamiliar with the area would tend to avoid because of the construction.  The detective speculates that the killer knew the area well and might even be an outpatient at the hospital”  At the end of the article:  “The score is Killer–4, Police–0.  If it ends here, in all likelihood the Oakland County child killer wi; never be caught.  ‘Probably not,’ even Lt. Roberson admits.”  [Nice optimism from a guy who is soon promoted, as they do at the MSP, and who never touches this case again.  And thanks for nothing, pal.]

And check this bad boy out–Detroit News, March 16, 1980: “The task force still operates, but with only one Michigan State Police detective assigned full time to check out new tips coming in at the rate of 10 per week.  State Police Lt. Joe Koenig, who took over Jan. 1 as task force coordinator, is optimistic the killer can still be found.  ‘If the case is broken, it will be through some relatively news investigative technique like hypnosis,’ he said.  [Like the hypnosis you fuckers and the FBI conducted on Doug Wilson who told you great details about the LeMans and the two men he saw in the parking lot with my brother right before he was abducted?!  The results you pieces of shit never made public?]  While emphasizing that the the task force ‘did one helluva job,’ Koenig is seriously considering another review of ‘high priority tips’ by a special group of retired police officers.  [Who, trust me, would have blown these stupid fucks out of the water.]  ‘We’re not being critical of the work already done,’ said Koenig.  ‘But maybe, just maybe, they overlooked something because of all the pressure.’  Koenig says he hasn’t ruled out the possibility that more than one person was involved in the killings.  Michigan State Police Capt. Robert Robertson, who headed the task force until a recent promotion, plays down the value of reexamining tips.  [Seriously?!]  ‘We went over those tips so many times,’ said Robertson.  ‘I don’t think it will do any good.  But they can do what they want.”  [Do what you want; we got The Thin Blue Line, bitches; we know better than all of you do, and you will never cross The Line.]  But Koenig has a new theory–a long shot [in 1980!], he admits [right, pal], on what happened to the killer.  ‘What if the killer is from a very wealthy family,’ he said.  ‘Suppose the parents discover their son is the killer and send him off to Europe for psychiatric treatment.  The family name is spared, their son is receiving treatment, and they are sure no one else can be killed.  They can live with that.’  [Ah, if you have dealt with anyone from the MSP, do you see one of them pulling this shit out of their hat, then or now?!] . . .  Capt. Robertson said he feels the killer was somehow [fucking ‘somehow’????] ‘taken from us,’ either through death [Busch] or imprisonment [Greene].

*********

Definitely that cover up started before he offed himself for reasons you point out.  Had to have.  On top of Busch wielding all kinds of power and clout, there was that fucking polygraph that Busch “passed.”  Everyone treated that like absolution by God.  [How about it, Ralph Cabot/God?]

There were two tip lossages, I believe.  One was relatively early on (I’m almost 100% sure this was pre-suicide) and a tip line was accidentally erased at Bham PD.  I can find that mention in the newspapers.  Then, down the road there was some loss when the task force tip line got “overloaded” and something like 277 tips were deleted to make room for more shit.  [Fuck suburban, traffic enforcement, property crime police departments!]  The cops tried to say that it was no big deal because of course they had these tips on paper, too, but you know they were wiping their asses with those tip sheets by that point.

As you say, it’s hard to know when the ditching of CB’s files started with Bham and other PD started happening.  As we know, some incidents never even made it to the reporting stage and some victims were bought off.  The ditching could have been occurring from the get-go, and I can certainly see Bham ditching what little they probably had after Busch offed himself.

The cover up and mental institution things have to be true–Busch didn’t kill himself until November 20, 1978–that’s 19 months after Tim was murdered.  They had to have him stashed somewhere.  He lives for 19 months and THEN decides to off himself?  Lends more weight to the somebody offed himself scenario.  The animal probably didn’t have the guts to kill himself.

It’s pretty damn hard to read those quotes from the pigs and not believe they didn’t know about Busch (and probably Greene).  None of that shit makes any sense otherwise.

*****

No matter how it went down, I believe that there was a kind of “willful not-knowing’ on the part of many people in LE.  There were those few people who knew it was Chris Busch and covered it up, but most cops probably didn’t want to admit they fucked up so bad that they just didn’t look into it very hard.  They looked for any excuse to believe it wasn’t Busch, and easily found one in the polygraph.  [Thanks again, Ralph Cabot of the MSP.]  The vast majority of cops could thus claim they did the best they could.

You and I know it’s bullshit, but even some of the well-meaning cops probably did hang their hat on that fucked-up polygraph result [thanks again for the Voodoo, Cabot].  It was easier to do that than admit they had him on the Stebbins murder and let him go on to kill Tim (not to mention that he should’ve been serving life for multiple CSC with minors offenses).

The key for me is when the cover-up began.  I keep going back to that.  Did it begin in 1977, soon after Tim’s murder, or in 1978, after Busch offed himself?

If the cover-up is put into motion in 1978 after Busch’s “suicide,’ then the kind of intellectual dishonesty described above is more plausible.  (“Wow, he couldn’t have done it, could he?  We never would’ve cleared him if he was guilty.  And, oh well, he’s dead now.”)  In this scenario it looks more like they fucked up but never really realized it (or admitted it).  This is what the cops will claim if some version of the truth comes out.

If the cover-up began in 1977, that’s a whole different kettle of fish.  If H. Lee [Busch] told the cops, “Look, may son didn’t do it (Greene did).  You can’t prove it’s him, you cleared him before the last murder, and furthermore, he’s in a mental hospital in Europe and can never harm anyone else,” and then HE COMES BACK AND MOLESTS MORE KIDS, you have complicity by police on an entirely different level.  They would be busted actively aiding and abetting a serial child killer.  Exposure of incompetence would be bad enough, but that kind of complicity would certainly inspire some motivated and ruthless ass-covering of the highest order.  With that type of cover-up, the threat of demotions and firings would silence almost anyone in the know–especially anyone in this type of case, where no one cop had very much to go on.  Those cops who were out of the loop could simply latch on to the same thinking outlined above.

I really don’t have any idea what Tobias or Tobin were like or what their roles were. I bet someone at B’ham PD knows who Busch was friends with.  It would be great to find that complaint from the girl, now woman, who lived on Mohegan [near the home of Charles Busch, brother of Chris Busch], and figure out who made that go away.

***********

I read at least one person’s entry on Helen [Dagner’s] site that indicated when they went forward with information to the cops, the cops said the families did not want to have the cases dredged up in the media.

****** said something similar–that since the cops were so dismissive of her lead, she figured they had to know who it was.

It’s ghastly to think the cops would play the families off against the public, but I believe that’s what happened.  It’s like the *** ****** incident–the impression is the families know [about this rich fuck who offed himself] and want it on the down low, so everyone goes away.  It would take a lot of pushing to get any play, and we know from the Lemans stuff that the cops got the media to play ball.  Even a vindictive and highly motivated person like Helen [Dagner] couldn’t do anything in the mainstream media or through normal LE or government channels.

There must be some really embarrassing shit in those files.  I hope it all comes out, but they are probably ditching the last of it now.

That was an email exchange from 2009.  I just kept thinking this fucking case would get solved.  It won’t.  So stay tuned.  I’m posting every fucking thing I have on this case, except what will wreck the life of someone who is decent.  That I will not do.  I kept holding back–don’t fuck up the investigation, Cathy!  The shit I have is all public information–FOIA documents–and the opinions of others.  None of us have police powers.  Thank god I don’t live in, and rarely visit Oakland County.  But this shit goes on all over the country.  Don’t kid yourselves.  It needs to be on the record.  No one gets to hide their head in the sand.

Finally, if you don’t believe me (and I frankly don’t care one way or the other), consider this email I received on or before 2013:

First–I seem to recall seeing a TV news story, perhaps in late 1978 or 1979, top the effect that police officials announced that they were either ending, or at least winding down, the OCCK investigation.  I can’t remember exactly.  I do remember it being probably about a couple of years after Tim’s death (and for what it’s worth, I seem to recall that I saw it on Channel 7.)  But what I remember more than anything else was that the police were quoted as stated [sic] that they believed that the killer –and this is virtually as direct a quote as I can provide 35 years later–that the killer ‘was either dead or in a mental hospital.’  Again, I was very young when I saw this, but I remember it quite well, and more to the point–this may be the only instance of a case where the the police publicly announced, not an arrest, but that they believed that the killer was dead or in a mental hospital.

Other thoughts . . .  when  the former Busch residence and its possible tie to the murders, was made public, my mother discovered that she had been in the house–my parents apparently knew the people who bought the house from Busch’s parents.  They have since sold the house again, but apparently the new owner, visited it roughly around the time of the closing, to find the father–apparently the bigshot GM executive–in the garage hosing down the walls.  I know that this sounds like some crazy friend-of-a-friend folk legend where somebody told somebody something, but again–my mom was familiar with this house–it had an odd layout where the garage somehow entered into the basement or something like that.  Again, she leaned this one recently–I don’t think those other people (who bought the house) were at all aware of the OCCK connection.

Thank you for confirming something that I’d long wondered if I’d somehow completely misunderstood as a kid–it was only from the perspective of adulthood that I was able to reflect on that ‘dead or in a mental institution’ statement and realize how queer (I’m using that word in the original dictionary sense) that type of statement, issued by law enforcement in an official capacity, really was.

Why do you think this person, clearly younger than I am, remembers this all “quite well”?  Because it was so bizarre and so incongruous.  I was lucky; I got to leave town in June of 1977 and basically never returned.  One of my younger brothers remembers this oddity in the news, as well as the strange way the cops and the media treated the murder of John McKinney in September 1977.  Apparently most people in Oakland County just wanted it all to go away.  Head down; thank god it wasn’t my kid, my brother, my nephew, my grandson, my friend, my kid’s friend.  Worry about switching out your wallpaper, tending your garden or planning your next vacation.  Don’t give thought to who you have in office as prosecutor or who your police chief is.  Odds are, you won’t get fucked.