At least they do when it comes to the murder of the Robison family in Northern Michigan some 50 years ago. Nina Instead, host and writer/producer of Already Gone, a true crime podcast focusing on crimes from the Detroit area (http://www.alreadygonepodcast.com/author/admin/), sent me a link this morning:
https://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/10/50_years_after_michigan_family.html
Yes, those considerate folks up north are having a series of forums to discuss this open murder investigation to put rumors to rest. In my blog post of January 20, 2014 (“Someone should write a book”), I discussed a book written about these murders by Mardi Link. In that post, I highlight the differences in the way the Michigan State Police and other law enforcement agencies, including prosecutors, freely worked with Ms. Link to help her with her book, and the massive stonewalling that has gone on in the OCCK case.
Read about these forums those kind folk up north are having, and consider how law enforcement and officials have treated the four kids, their family and friends, and the community in the OCCK case. Consider that they shut down any legitimate discussion of this case, refuse to produce documents except under court order or threat of court order, and when they do, they are ridiculously redacted. No one bothers one bit with any thought of the reputation of Joseph Scolaro or any of his living family members. Also consider that my Dad, at close to age 90, has spoken with local women’s and men’s groups about the investigation in this case. Nobody from law enforcement is there to answer questions. The audiences are small. There is no “pre-Halloween” final forum on these murders, unlike the ghastly murder of the Robisons.
About these standing-room only forums, Link observed:
“I think it’s unprecedented,” author Mardi Link said of this year’s traveling presentations. “I don’t know of any other case where this has happened.” Link – who penned “When Evil Came to Good Hart” in 2008 and recently refreshed it for republishing this year – said she’s been struck by the size of the sold-out audiences. She thinks it’s because of how this case has resonated with the Up North community as a whole.
“People care,” she said. “This was an entire family. It wasn’t just a movie. It wasn’t a novel. It was a real family who had people who loved and cared about them.”
Really? These were four kids who had entire families who had people who loved and cared about them. They were not shot. They were held captive for days (and Kristine for weeks), tortured and then suffocated. Yet here there are no forums, no explanations, no honesty or integrity.
Consider how easy the Michigan State Police and local authorities made it for Mardi Link to write this book about an OPEN case. You can say Scolero, who died by suicide, was the obvious murderer. But you could also say that about Chris Busch, who also died by “suicide” in the OCCK case. From my previous post in 2014, based on an email I sent my family years before that:
Link explains in a web article that she had always been fascinated by the Robison case, being the same age as young Susie Robison the summer of 1968. “The self-proclaimed Court TV addict pitched the project to an editor through ‘a blind e-mail.’ ‘She responded (and) voila, I had a book contract,’ Link said. She filed Freedom of Information Act requests, obtained files from Emmet County and the Michigan State Police and interviewed Good Hart locals. The publisher’s approval came in March 2007 and by November, Link turned in the book.” http://record-eagle.com/features/x75055214/Author-fascinated-by-the-Robison-case “’I was trying to tell, from various angles, what really happened,” she said. ‘The main character of the book is really the investigation.’”
Link’s obvious conclusion that Scolaro was either the killer or the person who hired the killer(s) is one long-held by the MSP detectives who worked on this case, as well as the Emmet County Sheriff’s office. In 2002 it was announced that three pubic hairs found on Shirley Robison’s body would be retested and that her clothing would be reexamined for DNA evidence. Unfortunately, the evidence turned out to be too degraded. This result was made public.
Interesting that such a comprehensive book is written about a case that is still open. But it turns out that Link had quite a bit of help and a lot of file access.
First, in her acknowledgements, Ms. Link explains that “Sheriff Pete Wallin and Detective J. L. Sumpter of the Emmet County Sheriff’s Office graciously opened up their exhaustive records on the case and provided me with their own personal observations and wisdom, which was invaluable.” Hmm, I wonder if the B’ham , Berkley, or other local PDs would do the same in our case? “Thank you, Shannon Akans and Linda Ortiz of the Michigan State Police, for ACCESS to that agency’s WELL-ORGANIZED, BEHEMOTH FILE ON THE CASE. I am proud to be a citizen of a state that has the Michigan State Police looking out for our welfare.” [Really?!] The photographs in Ms. Link’s book are “courtesy of the Michigan State Police.” Wow. Definitely a Kool-aid drinker, but you can see why—she owes her first book to them and she is now working on a second book about a different murder. Thank god for the MSP and their willingness to provide “an open book” on the Robison murders! I bet you all sleep better knowing the MSP is looking out for your welfare.
“A Note to Readers” explains that: “This is a true story. It was written nearly forty years after the murder of the Robison family, and many of the people you will meet in these pages were deceased long before I began writing about them. METICULOUS RECORDS OF THE CASE WERE KEPT BY BOTH THE MICHIGAN STATE POLICE AND THE EMMET COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE, INCLUDING WRITTEN INTERVIEWS OF FRIENDS, FAMILY MEMBERS, BUSINESS ASSOCIATES, SUSPECTS AND OTHERS IN THE MIDST, AND ON THE FRINGES OF, THE INVESTIGATION.” Records that Ms. Link was allowed to review in this still-open investigation. This included a 300-page report which was the “result of eighteen months of meticulous police work by detectives who had investigated the Robison case.” In it all of the pertinent details were forged into a single narrative. Link describes the report:
“Here together for the first time was all of the background research, all of the interviews, the polygraph test results, the lab and autopsy results, and of course those crucial ballistics determinations. The three-hundred-page report was physically heavy, but also loaded down with human expectations. So precious was their package that to Detectives Stearns and Flis [MSP], who drove north in order to hand-deliver their report safely into the care of prosecutor Donald G. Noggle, it must have felt like they were handing over pages plated with 14-carat gold.”
Prosecutor Noggle later determined there was not enough evidence to file charges against Scolaro. State Attorney General Frank Kelley backed up Noggle’s decision.
Now, if Link can read these meticulous records, stellar written interviews and the gold-plated 300-page report in the still-open Robison murder investigation, why the fuck can’t we look at the records and whatever else they have in the still-open OCCK case?! Bring on the gold-plated power point, boys. Let’s see what you’ve got.
In 1973, the MSP and Emmet Co. sheriff went to the Oakland County Prosecutor, L. Brooks Patterson, to find a way to sidestep the Emett County prosecutor. Rumor was that OC was going to issue an arrest warrant for Joseph Scolaro based upon conspiracy to commit murder charges. When Scalaro caught wind of the imminent conspiracy charges, he offed himself in May 1973. Like Chris Busch, he ended up in the Wm R. Hamilton Funeral Home, two blocks from our family’s house in Birmingham. I wonder if he was also cremated. I’m sure it was a good option for people who had concern about hair and fingerprint evidence, just as it is today for obliterating DNA evidence not already in some database.
As previously mentioned, in 2002, Emmet Co. Sheriff Wallin asked the MSP Forensic Science Division to conduct DNA testing in the Robison case. Catch this: “Before the lab work was started, money, and a lot of it, happened to become available for tests on old DNA evidence. In March 2003, the Forensic Science Division received a $1.4 million federal grant to conduct DNA testing on cold cases. The grant allowed the Grayling laboratory to select 175 cases from around the state in which there were “existing biological samples” and to test them. The idea behind the grant was that these biological samples would be entered into CODIS (Combined DNA Indexing System), the national crime-fighting DNA database, and checked against existing records. Adding 175 new cases would also expand the scope of the database itself.” I am quite sure the OCCK case was never considered as one of the 175.
Emmett Co. detective J.L Sumpter was interviewed about the Robison case in 2007. He said: “There is just something about this case. Once you know a little bit about it, you want to know more. No, you don’t just want to know more, you have to know more. It’s like it’s contagious, and what you catch from it is obsession.”
So when you hear law enforcement and prosecutors, past and present, complaining bitterly about the books that will continue to be written about the OCCK case, about podcast and documentaries and other media coverage which might follow, ask yourself if there had been even a modicum of transparency in this case, if they would have been pitted against the public, the kids who were murdered, and against history like they will be. People who do bad things are bad people. And so are the people who cover up for them.
And thank you to Nina Innsted for staying in touch with me concerning the OCCK murders.
Cathy,
I will tell you what a shame is I know exactly what the kidnapper looks like as me and another girl were almost kidnapped by him I believe it was 1976 maybe 77.,It is on police record in Lake Orion, Michigan, or maybe that police report disappeared too, who knows, I believe the occk stopped kidnapping because he could be identified. I recently have tried to get my information to the right investigators, I think I finally did on Mon of last week.
I am looking forward to hear from the detective, as I would say the freak was about 16-18 yrs. old then and would be 58-60 today.
I can also tell everyone how he gets the kids in the car, he drives up and tries to talk and then he drives the car as you walk and then turns the car closer and closer until he can grab you, he grabbed the other girls arm and I pulled her back and held on and pulled and pulled until I got her away from him, I saw what he looked like perfectly, they have a great sketch of him, however they must know that he was very small framed and the nose is not correct, it was more triangle then the suspects they have now.
I believe he painted the car green or it was never a blue one they should have been looking for, It was green with a stripe.
After living out of the country most of my life, I have for the past 2 years since I got back to get someone to listen to me.
I know your passion and I appreciate it, I can’t believe something that evil had a hold of my arm, and I was able to get both of us away from him, I was 11.
I looked straight into his eyes and he did not look like a nut or pervert he looked like anyones older brother with blonde hair light color eyes not brown, small nose, and weird eye shape, very small build he had skinny arms that were very strong, so very strong, I am so glad that I kept fighting him so he could not get her or me into that car.
I bet they look up the record of our attempted kidnapping, they will have a better view on time Chris Busch died and see if it was before or after our attempted kidnapping, then maybe they will have their eyes open about something.or someone,
I am happy to tell you and all your readers that me and the other girl are the reason the children stopped being killed, I have a peace about it, there was no more occk after us.
Thank you for continuing to pursue this with law enforcement. I’m glad you and your friend evaded him.
Your email JUST popped up. Good morning. My heart really goes out to you. The Good Hart relatives have had at least some sense of closure (answers) for the past 40 years. It hasn’t been the same for you and SHAME on the politicians, then and now.
Thanks, Cecilia.
Yes, it’s total BS. You know what they say….follow the $. Something is rotten in OC!
Cathy – this post shows the vast difference on how the OCCK case was/is handled vs. the Robison case. It is obvious to anyone paying attention that something is rotten. Is there anything that we can do – anything specific. I feel like you are shouting into the wind and hoping someone hears that can make a difference. And, I’m all for that b/c there aren’t many other options. But, maybe we could – as a community – target some official that has shown some compassion for your family and the families of the other victims. Maybe we could target – as a community – a friendly voice in the media. Is the gal still alive that wrote about Fox Island in northern MI in the 1970s? Maybe she’s up for a fight. Is it the files that we need? Is it DNA evidence to be examined that we need? I realize this is a lot to ask of you, but if you could say what the next step could be – maybe – as a community – we could focus on getting it done. I am not saying that this hasn’t already been tried b/c I don’t know if it has. Even something as wild as a campaign to write President Trump or his wife Melania as a community may make a difference. I realize that these suggestions are not well thought out and they are my versions of shouting into the wind.
Jim, I have given a lot of thought to your response. Yes, I am shouting in the wind. We started out so naive–surely when we tell law enforcement what we have learned, they will act on it; this will be it! Many, many of my readers have experienced this when they went to authorities over the years. Until LE or the FBI tells them “What do you want me/us to do?” or “Thank you, now get lost,” and then we all end up in the same place. Where LAW ENFORCEMENT keeps a lid on what happened. Where no one will comment, let alone fucking attend a forum to dispel rumors in this case. All I can say is that everything we have tried has been unsuccessful. While there is no such thing as closure, it would help tremendously if these cases were solved. If law enforcement had any integrity, they would come clean, learn and go forward. People write in and say “follow the money” (how?!), or “contact the FBI” (they are dirty in this thing, too, and perhaps today more than ever, right Sean Callaghan?). Some official who has shown compassion for the families? You mean the kind of compassion that rises above self-interest or politics? No. All we can settle for is exposure. The story demands to be told in as many venues as possible, in all of it’s horror and corruption. If this happened to these four kids and over forty years have passed with no answers, this can happen again. And given the current level of government corruption at all levels in 2018, it sure as hell can happen again. Some people got a pass. Those four little kids weren’t so lucky. The killers in this case had ice water coursing through their veins, but so do those who kept their mouths shut. Exposure is as good as it’s going to get. It can’t happen soon enough.
I feel Jim’s helplessness and need to want to help. I’m on board for getting some truth somewhere. So many people are gone now so come on people, speak up! I’m out of the suburbs now but have plenty of friends and family in the tri-counties still.If Jim Schuette has been doing so much for human trafficking maybe we could start there and work back. I forgot, Cathy,sorry, isn’t there one more guy alive in prison we could water board or something?
Ted Lamborgine and Arch Sloan are rotting in prison and maintain that they know nothing. Vince Gunnels (James Vincent “Vinny” Gunnels)–out of prison, but has knowledge, I’m sure of it. Another man, who I won’t name here now, I believe has knowledge. Busch and Greene victimized a lot of boys and young men. Their silence is deafening, but perhaps understandable. Water boarding those still alive who were involved in the cover up might be more effective.
Cathy,
Re:THE AIR BREATHING SCUMBAGS
I had thought Sloan just died. I knew one was still clammed up. FUCKING COWARD!!!
My Home Depot pails are ready and I’m sure I could find some nice neighborly gentlemen to find a horse trough ’round here too.By the way I meant Bill Shuette. If he actually becomes gov. he could demand action right? And he’s spending tons of somebody’s money on these trafficking commercials and victims’ rights
Dear Cathy,
I can tell you that the good people of Michigan will NEVER forget. I was 11 yrs. old in Redford, a mere stones throw away. Even as early as the first my parent laid down new rules. I overheard them speaking of this MONSTER who held these poor babies, scrubbed them, left them unharmed but suffocated and posed them angelic like to return to their families. My parents cried and we prayed at night as each time I thought would I even be safe in the summer soon? In a year or two I’ll be too old but then I have to really watch out for my little brother Tim. When youre brother Timmy was found in Livonia I thought my dad would come unglued. He knew some cops in Livonia and Redford through little league and literally wanted to start a manhunt. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH he said. Of course, they shooed him away and that was that.
Since then I heard and read snippets, looked up things , got excited about the Norbert exhumation until I heard nothing. Saw some stupid show that was filled with stuff I already thought I knew, blah blah. And then, I saw your blog, read THE KILL JAR and have been reeling ever since. I knew about the OCPD and their shoddy record keeping (literally even keeping it probably) but had no clue of the breadth and scope of infinitte EVIL spread throughout, up the chain, socio-economically, politically, etc. My head is endlessly reaching for the simple answer but my heart is broken because of this senseless pain .
I’m rambling now because I cannot thank you enough for your dedication and love, your sacrifice to keep trying. Please know there is ALWAYS one more person behind you wanting to cut through the BS they’ve been fed and why they missed out on so much outside fun for too F’ing long because these SICK DEGENERATES were more important than four BEAUTIFUL, INTELLIGENT, CURIOUS,CHILDREN!
Also, thanks for the heads up on the Robinson link. I love to see help being done for sure.
Nothing surprises me anymore. Just so horrible for your family . Let some of these assholes walk one year in your shoes.
It makes me sick to my stomach .
Lived thru this tragedy . My heart goes out to your Dad. Remember seeing him in Peabodys with your mother .
In my prayers 🙏
The OCCK was a man named Johnny Metzger, aka BOB, leader of a cult based on shame. He was one of the victims of the Busch ring and it was a revenge crime for what occurred in Flint/Traverse City Bay. He did not kill Mark, Busch did, but he was forced to participate and tried turning Busch in but L Brooks and cronies covered it up, so he thought if he killed rich kids it might come out. It never did and he kept killing and killing.
Call the FBI and see if he is currently in custody. Don’t post this message but please email me.
This case is solved, it’s just hard to pull the plug because he has a good chunk of Michigan wrapped up in his network.
How it operates is like this. They find young, impressionable people in hubs like Kzoo. Vince Gunnels sold ecstacy to them and got some of the girls to do things they were ashamed of on camera. They then blackmailed them via forcing them to participate in a small way in a very serious crime, then documenting it and holding that over their heads as blackmail.
He found people who clicked on Child Porn or other sicknesses on the dark web as well, visiting them or luring them in via blackmail into the same trap. He’d target groups of friends so everyone in the group would hold eachother accountable, if anyone goes forward it all comes out (group crime) and everyone goes down.
Bob threw a party in Detroit where they killed a kid in 2010 using prominent children in Oakland County, where he blackmailed them and then went and blackmailed Jessica Cooper with all of their kids. From that point he held the Oakland County Mafia hostage using their children who were tricked into participating in a group murder.
Everyone that participated were then utilized in rackets and recruitments and it spread and spread. The Michigan State Police know who Bob is. Cory Williams pretty much told me “what do you want me to do about it?” They know. I gave them an air tight case and they refuse to pull the trigger. That picture I sent you wasn’t Tim, no, but it was one of the victims of the N. Fox Island ring. I got that picture from a friend of Bob.
It’s very messed up, I’m sorry about your brother. Like i said, contact the fbi and get back to me.
I wasn’t going to say it before because I was not completely sure. But when I saw that young pic of Vince Gunnels ,it looked so much like the guy at Hartfields bowling alley .I always thought he was selling his ass up there .Now that you brought it up ,I talked to someone I knew back then and he thinks he got mescaline from him in the 80s. Berkley is up to its neck in it.
Perhaps a few other ways to look at this are versions of relatively well-known sayings–When we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. One of my brother’s favorite quotes is that the fire inside of you has to burn brighter than the fires around you. Or, another way to look at all of this, as Winston Churchill said: “A man does what he must–in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures–and that is the basis of all human morality.”
Although not originally from Michigan, I currently live in Birmingham and I have become somewhat obsessed with this case. It seems impossible to me that a case of this magnitude, with seemingly massive amounts of physical evidence, could remain unsolved. I can’t fathom your pain and frustration, but I applaud your unrelenting determination to find some semblance of justice for your brother. It seems the answers are available to anyone with enough access and fortitude. I pray your cause finds resolution, and I’m extremely confident your brother has been in a place far better than this these last 40+ years.
Thanks, Luke.
Seriously, I mean Luke just moved here and he gets it! Cathy, I don’t know how far up the media chain you’ve gone, but now that there are SO MANY of these cold case investigations now maybe someone bigger would be willing. Did Chris Hanson really refuse or just his people weren’t open to it (referencing Kill Jar) ? I’m just so very sorry and please know there is a new fire in people I think because now we’re becoming grandparents and as we age and see all this technology we want our childhood ‘bogeyman’ brought to justice.
ALL MY HOPE AND PRAYERS FOR YOU AND YOURS.
Thanks Cathy, I have been looking at all the pictures of suspects and it was not the guy who tried to kidnap us, since this has been a huge cover up since the beginning, I think they need to look in three directions, The Mafia, A Priest, or a Police officer, there is no way there would be such a cover up unless it was one of these not even a big executive of GM would they cover in this degree it has to be one of these, I hope that the family of the victims will consider this even as sick as it may sound, but cleaning the bodies really a person who had great shame, and did not want to leave back any evidence, it is time to look into a different direction before it is too late.
I am looking at all the pictues of a specific nose I do not see, whoever did the kidnapping is not the suspects on file, maybe they are the torturers or murderers but forsure not the kidnapper. I am so frustrated, but we all know that Oakland County is a big place for Mafia, I come from the hometown of Jimmy Hoffa that should be your first clue, I am still saying that or a Priest or a Police officer, we are not stupid officers cover officers or a big public figure.
Nothing makes sense except this, I am going to try to get them to look at this hopefully someone will listen, who knows it could close a very cold cold case if they look at this remote possibliity.
As a teen-ager I had a Priest pat my butt in a perverted way, maybe they should look at him, I did tell him and not in a nice way, that a Priest should not touch me that way, keep your hands off me. So with the Priests anything is possible.
I have not heard from a detective yet, I will give a window because of the holidays, but after that I will not stop until I am heard.
Thanks again for your dedication in the catching of the occk, I will not capitalize he is nothing , but a little coward prick that thinks he got away with something, but I have faith in God and he’s got this, he or they or she have not gotten away with shit.
Linda ,I know it’s hard to believe about GM ,but the reason Max Fisher was always sending L.Brooks Patterson money as he admitted in New york artical ,was because he needed to secure the UAW vote (presidential) .The president decides was good for GM ,trade agreements etc. Also was Brooksie was protecting was a huge tax base .You know what askilled trades at the lake orion plant gets you. A house on a lake a boat and slip .2 vacations a year to Aruba and expensive jewelry for yor wife’s birthday an anniversary. Only pedos and scumbags can live in Detroit NOT oakland county.